


Compass of thy Soul

by Umei_no_Mai



Series: The Compass Points North [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fix-It, MANY minor character deaths, Mentions of Suicide, Minor Character Death, No Aliens, Politics, Senju characters eaten alive off-screen, Variously Queer Characters, Warring States Period (Naruto), Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:47:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 136,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27470710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Umei_no_Mai/pseuds/Umei_no_Mai
Summary: Being reborn into the Uchiha clan during the Warring Clans Era is surprisingly idyllic, so long as you don't mind hard work and are too young to know any of the people who are actually dying. But innocence never lasts, and trying to help family stay alive is a road strewn with a surprising number of pitfalls and last-minute diversions.Also on ffnet.
Relationships: Uchiha Madara/Original Female Character(s)
Series: The Compass Points North [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2007121
Comments: 95
Kudos: 586
Collections: Best Fics From Across The Multiverse, Intriguingly Excellent Fics, Japanese Approved, Stupid Fuking Good Fics, tobirama's archives, works worth re-reading, ~Hallowtide Recommends~





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story is inspired by 'In a Definite Place at a Definite Time' by Pepperdoken, VagabondDawn and wafflelate, which is a (fantastic) recursive 'Dreaming of Sunshine' fanfic, and the associated worldbuilding.

Kita trots happily out of the house, a bowl of millet cradled carefully in both arms and the quail that had spent the night in the covered porch trilling and scuffling around her knees like a feathery eddy. Giggling at the brush of feathers against her bare calves, she scurries out into the middle of the vegetable garden, shifts her grip on the bowl so she can hold it one-handed, then uses her now-free hand to scoop up the tiny grains and scatters them across the vegetation.

The quail scatter after the seeds, cooing and trilling eagerly. Kita beams, turning around to scatter more millet in the opposite direction. There are lots of insects in the vegetable garden for the quail to eat as well, so it won't matter if they miss a few seeds and the millet sprouts. What is important was that the quail's breakfast is evenly scattered all over the garden, so none of them miss out. Mama said so!

Kita is a big girl now, three years old, so she is in charge of feeding the quail every morning and bringing them into the porch before it gets dark so the cats don't eat them. She has to count all of them on the way inside, and then go through the garden to see if any of them have laid eggs there rather than in the nest boxes under the edge of the raised floor in the house like they are supposed to.

That will be later though; it is only morning and she has given the quail their breakfast, so it is time to get the basket and check the nest boxes for eggs so Mama can make breakfast for everybody else!

Mama is going to have a baby in the summer, so Kita is learning to help more because she is going to be a big sister and big sisters have to set an example. She can make rice balls now, although hers don't look as nice as Mama's, and she knows how to check under the leaves of the plants in the garden for caterpillar eggs so the vegetables don't get eaten and how to sweep the floor and wipe the dust off the shōji. She wants to help with the laundry too but Mama says she's too small and would fall into the tub, and she isn't allowed to help Mama sew yet because she isn't strong enough to stab the hook through the layers without hurting her fingers.

Kita _is_ allowed to check the silkworms that live in trays in the loft though, and can count how many trays need new leaves to munch on so Mama can cut fresh branches off the mulberry trees in the garden. She also tells Mama when the silkworms are making cocoons, so Mama can prepare to dry them out in the sunshine, then boil water and reel off the silk. That is a _very_ important job because without the silkworms Mama wouldn't have any silk to do her special embroidery with!

Grandma helps with the silk as well, but she says she was too old to go climbing up ladders. Grandma spins the fluffy white silk from the less nice cocoons into thicker thread, which Mama dyes pretty colours in a special kettle with the thin thread and then sews with. In the summer when the hemp is all grown Grandma spins that too, after Papa had soaked it and Mama and Auntie Tsuyu had beaten and combed it. Grandma spent all autumn spinning hemp and weaving it on the big loom in her room to make sheets for the futons and bags for storing millet and bandages for when people get hurt. She also showed Kita how to twist the thin threads together to make rope for sandals, so she could help! Kita's new sandals have straps she made herself!

Kita isn't sure why they didn't dye all the hemp cloth in pretty colours like they did the silk and make kimono out of it, but Grandma scolded her when she suggested it, so there had to be a reason for it. Probably a weird reason that wouldn't make sense because she isn't a grown up; she does like her brown cotton kimono with tortoiseshell patterns –winter tortoises because Kita is a winter girl– but she wants a green kimono like Mama wears sometimes and Grandma's weaving is just as soft and nice as the indigo cotton Mama sews into coats for the older boys. Or a green coat! A green coat would be really pretty.

She asks Papa about a coat when she takes his bento to the forge and he ruffles her hair and says the Uchiha were a noble clan and nobles don't wear hemp outer clothes. Only farmers wear hemp kimono, because they can't afford to buy cotton. Kita doesn't think it's fair that she only has one cotton kimono that had belonged to her cousin Kuwa first when she could have two hemp kimono which are just hers, but Papa Looked at her when she said that so she apologised and watched him work for a little before going home again.

Papa makes wire. Mostly he makes steel wire for the clan, but sometimes he makes wire from gold and silver for Mama to embroider with, wire as thin as silk. Auntie sometimes says that Mama married Papa because he gave her gold to embroider her own obi with and Mama always rolled her eyes but never said it wasn't true.

Kita knows being Uchiha is important. She has an odd feeling she should live a village with people who aren't Uchiha, but she's run all over and everybody who lives in the cluster of houses around the fancy hall are Uchiha and everybody who works in the buildings near the river are Uchiha too and so are the people farming the fields around the houses and the warriors who gather around the shelters on the east side of the village where there aren't any fields.

She also knows the warm feeling under her skin is chakra, like the warriors talk about, and that when her grown-up boy cousins breath fire in the evenings to show off they are using chakra. Kita isn't sure when she was told this, but she knows that is what it is, the same way she knows about bridges and sand and dogs and cows despite never having seen any. Like she knows that as well as a Mama and Papa she has a Mum and Dad, but Mum and Dad aren't here.

She doesn't miss Mum and Dad; the memories are warm and comforting and she knows they know where she is, so they aren't worried about her being missing. She'd chosen to be here and be Kita with Mama and Papa and afterwards she would go back to be with Mum and Dad and everybody else who was family that isn't here.

She's done all the helpful things Mama asked her to and Papa is busy, so she's free to go play!

* * *

Kita is six now and she has a little sister called Tateshina and an even littler sister called Naka, who can't even walk yet. She knows lots more things now, things Mama and her aunties taught her, things she heard other clansmen talking about and things she remembered for herself.

She knows how to stitch a kimono back together after it has been washed, how to patch the heavy quilted jackets the warriors wear so nobody can tell it was ever torn or burnt or stained, how to print the colourful designs on the inside of the coats worn by her male cousins who have learned to fight and she is now learning to mend the beautiful silk patchwork on the inside of the coats of those clansmen whose lineage is more distinguished. Tajima-sama's wife died the winter before last and Mama has been made responsible for mending his coat ever since. Tajima-sama's sons don't have really beautiful coats like he does because they're still growing and only the oldest two are doing missions anyway, but Kita has been taught to stitch together bits of silk from Niniji-sama's old coat, which Niniji-sama gave to Mama to offset the cost of a new coat when he married Naka-sama the year before Kita was born. Naka-sama who has the same name as Kita's little sister; there are lots of women called 'Naka' in the Uchiha because the compound is beside the Naka river. Kita likes her name better; there are only two other women called 'Kita' and they are both much older than she is.

Mama unstitched the entire outside of Niniji-sama's coat and cut it down to make a coat for Papa, because Papa is shorter than Niniji-sama. She also carefully unpicked most the patchwork lining and is saving the pieces for when Tajima-sama's sons are old enough for proper coats. They aren't old enough yet –Madara-sama is only nine– but Kita is getting lots of practice and last summer Mama swapped some of Grandma's hemp fabric for Aunt Tsuyu's hemp paper, so Kita could start learning how to copy scroll paintings and prints and turn them into patchwork. Drawing is much easier than calligraphy, mostly because Mama doesn't mind her drawing with her left hand. Kumami-san who is teaching her to read and write along with the other girls her age makes her use her right hand and then scolds her for being messy, even though Kita can't help her right hand being clumsier than her left.

Kita also knows that if she doesn't do anything her friend Yahiko-kun and his little brothers Myōkō-chan and Saburō-chan are probably going to die, like they did in the story she remembers. Of course Yahiko's older brothers Izuna and Madara are going to have horrible things happen to them _too_ , but that's later so it's less important now. She needs to try and help Yahiko _now_ or else he is never going to play with her ever again or show her the koi in the pond of the clan's hall or climb oak trees with her in the summer to find wild silk cocoons for Mama to reel into green-gold thread or tell her more about chakra.

She needs to learn sealing. She doesn't have much chakra but what she remembers and what she's been taught suggest that sealing doesn't _need_ much chakra. Not like the fire technique Yahiko is so proud of which Kita can't do at all; she can make enough of a flame to light the iori in the mornings and Papa taught her how to ignite and tend a slow charcoal burn, but those aren't proper clan techniques like Yahiko's fireball.

Unfortunately, learning sealing will mean spending all her pocket money on ink and scavenging old roof tiles to practice on, since paper is expensive. She should probably start by learning to _make_ ink, like Uncle Iwate and his sons Yae and Ikoma. She could say she wants to learn so as not to waste his product for her patchwork designs and for practicing her writing; Uncle Iwate sells his ink to the daimyo's court because charcoal burned using chakra makes finer ink than the normal kind.

Kita knows a lot of special Uchiha craftsmanship involves charcoal made using the clan's fire techniques, from their weapon forging to the silk dyes to the coloured lacquer on the warrior's armour. They don't sell much of their work –they are too busy fighting the Senju to make much more than they need themselves– but what they do sell keeps the clan fed and equipped through the winter months when nothing grows. Nobody goes hungry, but the adults still worry until missions start coming in again.

* * *

Kita was too late for Yahiko; he died delivering a message shortly after Naka learned to crawl. She was also too late for Myōkō and Saburō as well and was almost too late for Niniji-sama's younger son Hijiri-kun, but she was delivering Hikaku-sama's new coat after staying up late to finish it and let herself into his house with a lantern at the same time as an enemy shinobi was murdering his and Hijiri's little sister Toku-chan. Kita had smelled blood, sensed the stranger's murderous intent and screamed fit to raise the dead, then dropped the coat and run; the shinobi had chased her out of the house and right into Niniji-sama and Tajima-sama, who had immediately killed him. They'd already killed the Senju who had snuck into the clan hall and killed Myōkō and Saburō in their beds.

After the funerals Niniji-sama and his wife had given Kita a length of cotton for a new kimono, dyed vivid red with a printed pattern of white interlocking circles. Kita had accepted the gift politely, been thrilled to realise there was more than enough fabric for an _adult_ kimono and carefully, meticulously turned the cotton left over from making herself a not-quite-adult-size kimono into a bag and an obi to wear with her other kimono. Getting the pattern to line up was tricky, but the bright red obi looks very cheerful against her feather-print indigo kimono. She is allowed to wear a proper obi now she is seven, rather than just obi cords.

Kita misses Yahiko. He was bright and happy and full of energy and he'd played all her games even though he thought she was strange for wanting to pretend to be a squirrel and climb trees when playing at being ninja or dragons was cooler.

She works out her first seal in the winter of her seventh birthday. It is surprisingly easy; seals are metaphoric, they let you make one thing like another thing, or at least that's how it seems to her. The seal is there to tell the thing what it is being: the umbrella seal tells the house roof to be like an umbrella and water stops leaking in between the shingles, because umbrellas don't have gaps. It works so well the shingles stop falling off on windy days, because umbrellas are all in one piece so can't shed bits. She's very happy with it!

Seals are like playing pretend and Kita is _good_ at playing pretend. She knows _lots_ of stories, both ones she'd been told by Mama and other clansmen and more that she remembers from before. She puts seals on the storehouses so they can't catch fire, hiding in the space between the two roofs so nobody can see her drawing them. She paints more fire-stopping seals under the stones of the iori, so sparks will stop singing the tatami, then sneaks around her aunts and uncles' houses to do it there too.

Then somebody's house is struck by lightning during a storm, so she worked out a seal to prevent that, which forces her to learn the 'walking on walls' chakra trick everybody had done in the Naruto story but that nobody in her clan seems to know about. She already known how to stick to walls –well, to trees as it made climbing less scary– but actually _walking_ up is harder.

Kita paints her 'lighting grounding' seal on the suzume-odori on top of the house's roof ridge, with a line down to the ground to dissipate the charge. Doing it to every building in the compound takes her until the spring and gets her in trouble twice for climbing on people's roofs –Papa is very angry when she is caught on the roof of the clan hall– but it was definitely worth it. She feels much safer now.

Maybe next she could work out a seal to keep the quail from escaping the garden? Shina always wants Kita to help when she can't find them, rather than going looking by herself. Even though looking by herself would be quicker than finding Kita and then looking for the quail together.

* * *

The year Kita will be eight at the end of is a terrible year. There is more fighting with the Senju, Uncle Katsuma dies hunting boar and a fox sneaks into the house one night and kills half the quail before anybody realises it is happening. Papa chases it out, then goes and shouts at Suseri-sama, the clan's cat summoner, because keeping foxes out of the compound is the cats' job. Shina is devastated by all the little bodies, but Mama just gathers them up and has them help her pluck them so they can be cooked, then turns the feathers into pillow stuffing. By the time morning comes another two quail have died of fright, but the rest seem well and four-year-old Shina carefully leads the much reduced group out into the garden.

Kita is sent to Aunt Yōko, to ask to borrow the male quail she keeps as songbirds so the remaining birds can breed. Aunt Yōko agrees, telling Kita that she and Mama have an agreement that once the birds are grown, Mama can keep the females and she gets the males. There won't be any eggs for several months as the flock recovers, so they will have to trade for them. Probably with Auntie Tsuyu, who has chickens. Kita doesn't like Auntie Tsuyu's chickens very much; they are glossy black like crows and the rooster is very, very noisy.

Mama is pregnant again and keeps getting sick, so Kita has to take over cooking and laundry, help Shina look after the silkworms _and_ help Grandma with the hemp on top of carrying Naka everywhere in a sling. Mama is at least well enough to keep up with her sewing, but Kita has to dye the thread under Grandma's keen eye because Mama can't stand the smell. She doesn't mind so much –it's interesting– and having to help with the hemp gives her the idea of stitching seals. If it worked nobody would notice them so long as the seals were the same colour as the rest of the fabric and seals in bandages to kill infection and reduce scarring would be helpful.

Unfortunately there is no time at all for experimenting all year; it is all Kita can do to jot down ideas and surreptitiously add the anti-vermin seal to the house to make sure the quail won't get attacked again. She even has to help Papa draw wire after his apprentice –her cousin Fure– dies protecting the clan's quarterly shipment of iron sand.

Learning more about wire is interesting and helping lets her feel like she's protecting the clan, but she doesn't have enough chakra to do more than a few hours at a time. She knows she will grow more with age and practice, but she doesn't have much time to practice chakra skills when her days are full of chores and lessons and cousins who have far more chakra than she does, so don't want to play chakra games with her. In late autumn Papa finds another apprentice –cousin Yae has decided he doesn't want to make ink and he's got plenty of chakra– and Kita is freed in time to be buried under pickle-making and other winter preparations.

It snows in November, so Kita spends the whole month before her eighth birthday spinning hemp, coming up with new coat print designs and telling stories to Naka so the toddler won't get bored and scream. Shina learns to clean under their mother's watchful eye, feeds the quail and learns to make rice balls. Shina also likes Kita's stories; Grandma mostly likes the ones with a moral lesson, but lets Kita tell the silly ones anyway because they pass the time.

All the spinning teaches Kita that she can infuse chakra into hemp, provided she is very, very careful. Too much and the thread snaps, all the filaments exploded. Grandma gets angry with her when that happens. Well, Grandma is grumpy anyway, because Kita's thread is not as evenly fine as it needs to be for weaving, but it's good enough for hemming and sewing seams so once Grandma has finished each length of material Kita has to sew the fabric together into sheets, fresh futon covers and various undergarments, all with subtle woven patterns; noble clan they might be, but only the handful of wealthiest and most influential families can afford cotton underclothing.

It being winter, she has more than enough time to try out a few stitched seals on old bits of rag in between helping Grandma. It takes a while to find a method that works –unlike with ink, a stitched seal is continuous so several designs have to be adjusted– but by early spring she has made new undershirts for both her sisters, tiny sharingan eye seals stitched on the inside of the collar over the glands on their throat, so their immune systems can be ever-vigilant and retaliate swiftly against illness. She doesn't dare add the seals to her mother's clothes –it would interfere with her pregnancy, Kita knows that for sure even though nobody has ever explained that to her– but she does sneak them onto her father's undershirts under the pretence of re-stitching them. With her family wearing new underclothing, she is then free to wash, re-stitch, repair and embroider their previous sets, along with her own.

Grandma won't let Kita touch her clothes, so she will have to do without seals. Grandma is tough though.

* * *

Her new baby sister is born in February, so with Mama busy looking after little Midori and teaching Shina to sew, Kita has to look after Naka. She has a new seal –a leash that doesn't let Naka run out of sight– and lots of mending to do, as Tajima-sama needs all his clothes checking over now the spring season is beginning. Mama has a newborn to look after and Shina to train, so Kita sits in the sunshine on the edge of the engawa, poring over her clan head's clothes and keeping an eye on Naka as the toddler runs around under the mulberry, pear, persimmon and plum trees between their house and Aunt Tsuyu's, chasing insects and getting covered in dirt and grass stains.

She doesn't quite dare stitch seals into Tajima-sama's underclothes –he has an active sharingan and the clan's bloodline lets people see chakra– but she decides to try dying some cotton thread indigo, so she can stitch seals between the layers of his coat where he is less likely to notice them.

Of course she will have to have some seals in mind for that to be worthwhile. She will have to think up some new ones that would be useful. Seals against damage, maybe? Seals to spread impact? How would she even test those?

She isn't even sure how well her immune system boosting seals work, although Shina was only sniffling with a cold for a few days last week despite usually needing a full week to throw one off. Speaking of which, she needs to embroider some inside little Midori-chan's blankets.

* * *

Kita is eight now, so she has more responsibilities. She learns about mending screen doors and making new tatami rather than just mending old ones, about how much things cost and how much to charge people for her work, how to bargain for things and how to determine the quality of rice and beans and pottery and washi and salt and cotton. Well, starts to learn at least; there is a lot to memorise. There are new words and kanji to learn as well, which keep her busy.

Not so busy she doesn't notice the tension though. Last year was hard for the clan –more people died than usual– and everybody blames the Senju. Kita agrees that the Senju sending people to murder Tajima-sama and Niniji-sama's younger children was really horrible, but the clan then going and murdering the Senju's children and getting killed was their own choice. They didn't have to do that. Tajima-sama could have kept the high ground and got the daimyo involved.

Well, Kita thinks so, but she knows she doesn't really know anything about politics. She just knows that when her clansmen say 'honour' they often mean 'my right to do whatever I want and call it a good thing' and that most of her extended family care more about vengeance than about improving things. Which is sad but there isn't anything she can do about it. Yes, she does want peace, but there's no way to _force_ peace to happen. To get peace everybody involved needs to be equally invested. That way nobody wants to break it.

Kita spends spring weeding in the garden around the quail, surreptitiously sneaking into other people's roofs to paint the umbrella seal in them so the endless rain doesn't wash everybody away and learning to defend herself. She is not a shinobi and is never going to be one, but Papa wants her to know her way around a knife so she will learn for him. Having her own knife will mean being allowed to do more foraging in summer and autumn too, which will be exciting. She might even be allowed to bring home some of the oak branches with wild silkworms on them, rather than waiting for them for spin cocoons and looking for them then!

Grandma says she's too young to spin silk, but as Kita gets better with hemp Grandma might be willing to spin more silk for her and she can at least reel the higher-quality cocoons now. Silk is more valuable, even though wild silk doesn't dye at all well due to being naturally greenish gold, and now there are seven people in the house Kita knows they will need more food to feed everyone. Mama has expanded the garden into the hemp field this year and lengthened the field towards the river to make up for it, but that might not be enough. More silk would help. There's nothing wrong with green.

Who knows, she might even find enough cocoons that Grandma will decide to start saving up silk for a proper formal kimono. Grandma wears her silk kimono all the time –well, all the time she's working indoors– but Mama doesn't. Mama says having children is a messy business so it's better to wear cotton, because cotton is easier to wash. Which, well… having seen Naka and now Midori burping up milk on Mama as babies, Kita has to agree with her. The apron doesn't cover up there.

Her biggest problem with being eight is that her hair is _long_ now and her parents won't let her cut it, even though wearing it up in a bun makes her neck ache. Kita takes to braiding it, which get tut-tutted at by Grandma as a 'masculine' style but is tidy enough that nobody makes her stop.

* * *

Kita doesn't know for sure what happened, but at the height of summer Tajima-sama brings his heir to the house and informs Mama that he is commissioning a proper quilted jacket for Madara-sama. This means that Kita has to carry Midori around while she works as well as keep an eye on Naka, because Mama is busy re-stitching the patchwork silk pieces from Niniji-sama's old jacket and cutting new ones for the design in Madara-sama's new jacket. Kita helped Mama with the design last year –Prince Ōkuninushi helping the Hare of Inaba on the riverbank and it prophesying his successes– but she isn't going to be allowed to help sew it because Naka and Midori need to be looked after and Tateshina isn't old enough to do that yet.

Of course Shina isn't old enough to help Mama either, but she _is_ old enough to take over some of the chores while Kita learns about making gold wire fine enough to wrap around silk thread from Papa. She can't _make_ the wire of course, but her fingers are nimble and strong enough that she can wrap the soft, flat wire around silk tightly and neatly enough that Grandma leaves her to it.

Kita wishes Tajima-sama hadn't decided to send his son onto the battlefield so early, so she could have had time to get good enough at embroidering that Mama would have let her do the work. Then she could have sewn seals into his coat.

As it is, she takes advantage of Mama being busy and Naka and Midori being too young to pay close attention to work out more seals. A little cautious experimentation leaves her with seals to calm tempers, improve reflexes and dexterity, strengthen the fabric they are sewn onto to the point that a knife blade pressing on it doesn't cut the fibres –it may not shield against a sword but it will do _something_ – and banish nightmares. She stitches the anti-nightmare seal into her own pillow right away; she is probably going to need it. She knows more about war than most girls her age and her memories are not at all reassuring when it comes to the many, many bad things that could happen to Madara-sama. He's not even twelve yet!

Admittedly Kita is only eight, but nobody is making _her_ kill people. Part of that is not being born in a warrior family, part is her lacking the chakra for it but mostly it is because she is a girl and hasn't shown the drive or aptitude for it. If she were a boy she would be expected to learn from Papa, but there would also be more pressure to learn to fight as well. Madara-sama's father leads the clan, so fighting is all he is ever going to be expected to do.

* * *

Kita is nine when she gets her own heavy cotton craft apron and her first proper commission: Tajima-sama has decided that newly-eleven Izuna-sama is old enough to join his brother on the battlefield come spring. Seeing as Tateshina is nearly six now, she gets to teach three-year-old Naka to do the easy chores while Mama looks after Midori and watches Kita as she fits and stitches the silk pieces together, keeping an eye on the weave of each little piece so that the resulting work isn't lopsided or inflexible. Everything has to be slightly larger than it looks like it needs to be, so that it will pad out properly over the lining and won't inhibit Izuna-sama's movement on the battlefield. The coat also needs to be big enough that he won't immediately grow out of it.

Kita thinks it's dumb to call a snotty boy of eleven 'sama' but Mama is doing it so she does too. His coat will have Ryūjin coiled inside across the upper back and down the sleeves, complete with a red and white coral palace rising up from the hem and swirling waves at the neckline. It is going to take her a long time –several weeks at best– just for the design, and she will then have to carefully sew the backing fabric into the sturdy outer indigo coat over another layer of padding and quilt that too, this time in neat lines rather than following the patchwork design.

Kita is planning on sewing as many seals as she has time for onto the backing fabric as well, especially at the collar and cuffs. Fireproofing and strengthening seals in particular. Being left in peace to work for hours on end is surprisingly enjoyable; Mama even lets her off her usual chores.

All in all, the only fly in the ointment is that, despite being briskly pleased by the quality of his son's new coat, Tajima-sama very clearly can't be bothered to remember Kita's name. Niniji-sama knows her name!

* * *

The winter she turns ten Grandma decides her spinning is finally even enough to be used for weaving and promptly starts teaching Kita to set up a seated loom like the one she rarely gets up from between summer and spring. Grandma also starts explaining things that Kita had kind of guessed at but never had confirmed.

"The decorative coats your mother makes are one of our clan's precious treasures and it is good to see you have the patience, dexterity and discerning eye needed to both complete an existing pattern and create a new one. However weaving is a necessity, so no matter how little talent for it you may have, I will expect you to persevere until you are at least competent. Should you discover a talent for it I will instruct you in how to weave a pattern, however I do not expect you to; your mind is too swift and you are too enamoured of novelty and variety. Tateshina is more methodical than you are and shows a greater appreciation for subtlety and repetition, so I expect she will be my successor. I wove Hitomi-sama's wedding kimono when she married Tajima and I hope that by the time Madara-sama marries, Shina-chan will be skilled enough to dress his bride." Mama had been taught by Grandma's mother, her own Grandma, but Kita's Grandma had learned weaving from her father's mother, who had been a civilian and joined the Uchiha clan along with her son when he married Great-Grandma.

"Yes Grandma," Kita says obediently. She has never been particularly interested in weaving –unlike Shina, who will happily sit beside the loom and watch for hours– but she knows that without Grandma's many hours of dedicated work, everybody in the house would wear underclothes with more patches and darns and the bedding would be similarly threadbare. The clan would also have fewer bandages to wrap wounds and the clan's fighters would have less of the chemically treated fire-proof wraps to protect their arms and legs with in battle.

Clothing and protection are important things and need to happen regardless of how little Kita is interested in weaving, as one day she will have a home of her own and need to both keep her family in undergarments and contribute to the wider clan. She will also one day have to weave dyed silk into short bolts for the patchwork coat linings, so it is definitely important.

Setting up a loom is hard, even with only half the number of threads as Grandma is using; Kita will be starting off weaving bandages, as they can be of indifferent quality and nobody will care if the weave in uneven. They are only going to be boiled and wrapped around injuries after all.

Working out a way to weave seals into them is going to have to wait until she actually knows what she's doing and Grandma isn't scrutinising her every move. Once her work is passable Grandma will likely turn all her attention to Tateshina; her little sister is six after all, more than old enough to start learning a proper craft. Kita was repairing quilted jackets at six and learning to make figured patchwork.

Sure enough, a few days later, once Grandma has taught Kita the basics and ensured that she knows what she is doing, Papa fetches the frame of another loom out of storage. Grandma then starts giving Shina a much more detailed lesson on maintaining a loom, setting it up and what all the pieces are called and what kinds of fabric they are used for. Kita listens with half an ear –weaving bandages is excruciatingly, mind-numbingly simple– then loses interest. Singing under her breath makes everything go faster and also distracts Midori, who is still a bit young to understand what 'don't touch' means.

Untangling her grubby-fingered little sister from the loom is _not_ something Kita wants to have to do, today or ever.

* * *

Weaving bandages leads to delivering bandages, which introduces Kita to a part of the clan she'd not seen much of before: the pharmacy and the surgery. They were near the clan's shrine, which Kita had never actually visited. Her parents and other relatives have though, mostly at festivals. All the histories and kami were all very well as stories, but she didn't personally believe in them. They weren't who she'd dedicated her previous life to, so even if they did exist they had no hold over her soul.

The largest feature of the pharmacy is the herb garden surrounding it. Kita had been fed various medicines for coughs and colds and watched as the clan's pharmacist –who writes regularly to the Nara clan, who are much more focused on medical matters than the Uchiha – examined her younger sisters and prescribed poultices and ointments and teas and breathing in burning herbs. She's never actually visited Yumiori-san though.

Yumiori-san is high-ranked, both due to her birth into the main family of one of the clan's lineages and due to being the clan's only pharmacist. She looks about the same age as Grandma and talks to Grandma like they know each-other better than the usual 'I see you regularly and we are in the same clan' that happens when there are over five hundred Uchiha, and doesn't have an apprentice. Well, doesn't have a _proper_ apprentice; Oizuru is the clan's surgeon, responsible for stitching wounds and setting bones, but he is a retired warrior missing his left leg below the knee and is mostly there to hold people down while Yumiori-san works and doesn't really care for the pharmaceutical side of things.

Kita suspects that is because he is bad at reading, but is not about to ask. Oizuru is Papa's age and asking would be _rude_.

Unlike Grandma, Yumiori-san likes to talk. "Kita-chan! Ah, I see you are finally learning to weave. Not to say your mother shouldn't have nurtured your talents –the clan's coats are important and it is only proper for our leaders to be dressed as is fitting for their station– and with four daughters it's important to ensure you can all contribute to the clan. Your grandma Fushimi has very high standards too; I know my sister wanted to apprentice her Naka-chan to her but was refused; Satomi was terribly offended at the time, but Naka-chan was happy following our brother into chemistry and pyrotechnics, at least until she married and took in all those orphans from the warrior families. She loves children, does my niece.

"Let me look at those bandages; not at all bad for a first effort! This loose weave is perfect for wrapping injuries, Kita-chan, so don't pull too tight and do your best to keep the tension even. Wraps for shinobi need to be stiffer, so they can be treated and made impervious to flame, so when weaving those you add an extra dozen threads in the warp, to make a denser weave while keeping the overall width the same. I'm sure your grandma will show you once you've convinced her you can be trusted with more complex work." She chuckles, shaking her head as she re-wraps the parcel of bandages and puts them in a basket with other similar bundles.

"Thank you, Yumiori-san," Kita murmurs. "Is there a need for many bandages?"

"The gods be willing, this year will not be as bad as the year Tajima-sama's younger sons died," Yumiori-san says gravely, shaking her head. "So many deaths, both on the battlefield and off it. I would hope for more, but I'm told that the daimyo of Tea is starting another trade war with the daimyo of Fire, so the warriors are likely to be away for months at a time and we'll lose more to supplying them." The older lady patted her on the head absently. "You're a good, dutiful girl, Kita-chan, making the clan strong."

"Would weaving more bandages help, Yumiori-san?"

"Yumiori-oba is fine, Kita-chan. More bandages would be lovely, dear; the warriors clear me out completely when they go on campaign and then there's always somebody falling out of a tree or mishandling an axe that needs to be patched up before my stocks have been replenished. You're a good girl offering to help."

"Thank you, Yumiori-oba."

Kita takes this to mean that sneaking seals into her finished bandages would be very helpful and also very unlikely to get traced back to her, since just about every woman in the village who doesn't fight or work iron weaves bandages, and they pass through enough pairs of hands that anybody pinning her down as the responsible party is very unlikely.

She has stitched seals to keep wounds sterile and prevent sepsis now –which she hopes will work as the theory is sound– and to encourage muscles to connect themselves back together how they were before the injury, and will probably stitch her immune-boosting seal into everything too. It can't hurt.

If a daimyo is going to hire all the clan's warriors for a single campaign –well maybe not _all_ but certainly the entire Outguard– then there is going to be a push for supplies and equipment. Madara-sama is probably going to need his coat letting out; he's thirteen now and getting taller very quickly. Mama will probably let her do that when everybody else's coats need checking over for rips and wear, which means an opportunity to add seals into his coat lining to match Izuna's.

She has certainly spun enough hemp this winter to not have to worry about running out of thread.

* * *

For the daimyo's samurai, the military season runs from late June to mid September: through the summer after the rice planting is over and the fields have been flooded, up until it is time for the harvest to be gathered in and weighed so that a certain percentage can be sent to the daimyo as tax. For shinobi, the military season begins in spring with the cherry blossoms and ends mid-autumn, after the daimyo has collected his annual rice tithe. Quite a few local landowners hire shinobi to protect their offering on its way to the capital to ensure that all of it arrives; those landowners also tend to pay in rice, which gets the clan through the winter until fresh contracts are offered in the spring.

With a war in the cards for the year, Kita decides to be proactive and suggests to Mama that they get an early start on repairing and replacing coats. The weather is still bitter, it being February, but Mama gets around that by inviting one of the smaller warrior households over for a meal and having Kita go over their coats with her, by lantern-light on the engawa behind the weather-boards, stitching and patching and circulating her chakra for warmth while Grandma entertains.

A few sessions later word gets around; Kita and Mama spend the tail-end of the winter being invited over to practically everybody's house and checking over their coats in exchange for meals and tea. Actual leaf tea, rather than just in cups to drink; she even gets a little canister of sencha from Niniji-sama and Naka-sama, which is much finer than anything she has ever drunk at home before. The best tea is kept for guests, so Kita mainly drinks kukicha, twig tea. She has drunk more sencha in the past month than in all of her life before!

She even gets invited to the clan hall, where she spends an entire day meticulously unpicking Madara-sama and Izuna-sama's coats and washing them, then another day stitching them back together again as Mama does the same with both of Tajima-sama's coats. Madara-sama has indeed grown and Izuna-sama has too, if not quite as much, so both coats are let out. Kita also removes some of the roughly-stitched patches from both boys' coat linings –repairs carried out by firelight in the field after skirmishes– and replaces them with more subtle ones that match the design, complete with suitable decorative stitching.

She also sews as many seals as she can into Madara-sama's coat lining and checks the integrity of the ones in Izuna-sama's coat, unpicking and replacing a few that have given out. She takes great care to do that part while Tajima-sama is meeting with somebody in the hall's central reception room; she doesn't know what he would do if he caught her but she doesn't think he'd give her the benefit of the doubt, even though she is a clanswoman.

Even if he did, Kita doesn't want to be pushed into making explosive seals or other things for killing people. She wants to help and nurture and protect, not kill. Killing has never solved anybody's problems, no matter _what_ Izuna-sama thinks. The twelve-year-old has evidently got hold of some sophistic philosophy scroll or other and is sprouting his newfound belief in the cyclical nature of fate to everybody who stands still long enough. He clearly finds the idea that everything he does is set in stone before he even begins to be comforting, but Kita can't stand the nonsense babble. She eventually has to politely request that he stop distracting her, which makes him stomp out of the room in search of his older brother.

Kita does not even believe in fate, let alone in a 'cycle of inevitability.' Kita believes that every single person has power over their own future and is capable of changing it, for better or for worse. She also believes that there is no such thing as a divine mandate beyond 'be kind to one-another' and that the world is inherently too complex for human understanding, so the best than any one person can do is to find contentment in the present and not make themselves miserable striving after impossible ideals.

She doesn't believe in 'honour' or 'pleasing her ancestors' either, which will likely be a sticking point sooner or later. Her ancestors are dead –well most of them are– and they don't get a say; their lives are over and done with. Her life is for her, and at most for any future children.

It is her memories of another time and place that make her roll her eyes in private at Izuna-sama, who is almost two years older than her. She knows to her very bones that the world is wider and more subtle than his father has raised him to recognise; considering the endless conflict with the Senju as 'inevitable' makes for obedient warriors who do not question the never-ending parade of injury and death, and thus do not bring into question the stability of the clan hierarchy.

Madara-sama at least sees that peace would be good for the clan.

* * *

The entire fighting force of the clan being hired by a single client is very different to the usual missions in handfuls and dozens. Kita learns that it's not the just warriors who go; numerous wives and sisters go too, to cook and carry and tend to the injured and trade for supplies on the move. Also to spy and listen to gossip and cultivate friendships with influential civilian women, who pass on information of their own to maintain the privilege of a friendship with a lady of the nobility.

The clan compound is very empty with half of its inhabitants gone; Ohabari-sama, Tajima-sama's sister, is the highest-ranking person left behind and the guards patrolling the land around the compound are made up of the teenage, the injured, part-time craftspeople and the middle-aged. After planting is over Kita finds herself with far less to do than usual, so approaches Hikaku-sama to ask for shuriken lessons. She's capable of defending herself with a knife now –Papa has made sure she knows where to stab– but being able to throw something from a distance rather than having to wait for an enemy to get up close is probably a good idea.

Hikaku agrees, on the condition that she drops the 'sama.' A dozen of her girl cousins take an interest as well, which gets more of the older boys interested in teaching, and it becomes a regular thing. Kita is never going to be very good at it –unlike her cousins Kuwa and Maya and Sato, who get extra lessons and will probably demand coats of their own next spring– but she doesn't need to be. She just needs to be good enough to get away and raise the alarm.

Hikaku-kun is very serious about teaching her and very, very capable in his own right. Kita respects Niniji-sama very much for letting Hikaku stay at home with his pregnant mother and two little brothers –Hijiri is nine but Hidaka is barely weaned– rather than dragging him out onto the battlefield like Tajima-sama is doing with _his_ sons.

As summer gradually crawls to a close Kita realises Mama is pregnant again. She will have another younger sister not long after she turns eleven –well it _could_ be a boy, but being one of four sisters means Kita doesn't think it's very _likely_ – just in time for Naka to start teaching Midori how to do the chores. Tateshina is already settling firmly into being Grandma's apprentice –it will probably be made official soon if it hasn't been already, what with Shina being seven now and wearing obi– and Yae is now good enough that Papa is letting him do more than prepare charcoal and sort iron.

She doesn't know how many clansmen are going to come home. Two-thirds of the Tea daimyo's wages are brought to the clan compound every month, in salt and iron and mulberry paper and the promise of rice, escorted by scornful samurai or scrupulously respectful shinobi from clans that the Uchiha have loose alliances with, like the Akimichi, Yamanaka and Nara clans, the Fūma or the Hagoromo.

Having less to do –and with a reduced risk of running into Senju outside the compound– Kita wanders further afield than usual, gathering wild greens and digging up roots to take home and eat or plant in the garden, and manages to get her hands on a truly unexpectedly large quantity of wild silk by way of bringing home oak branches covered in caterpillars and keeping them in trays alongside Mama's silkworms. She has to make the extra trays herself –she cobbles them together out of hemp paper and broken floorboards– and regularly bring in fresh branches, but the result is well worth it: four times as many cocoons as she has ever found herself before.

Mama tells her that she is old enough to decide for herself if she wants to rear her own silk moths, so Kita only dries three quarters of the cocoons and lets the rest hatch, setting up a tent of old sheets for the moths to fly about in at night and branches for them to lay their eggs on. She takes care that all the hatching cocoons are on the smaller side –a larger cocoon can be a sign of a caterpillar having been parasitized– so that her moths will all hatch, and that the cocoon itself is well-made. The silk will all be greenish-gold, but Kita likes the colour. It's pretty.

This autumn Grandma has promised to teach her to spin her own silk –since it is hers and she won't be wasting Mama's cocoons trying to learn– and has unbent enough to inform her that the silk from the split cocoons the egg-laying moths came out of is also valuable despite it not being possible to spin it as finely. Monks will buy it, because the caterpillars did not die to produce it, so that will be a new market the clan can take advantage of.

Wanting to preserve the spirit of that market, Kita sets her moths free out of the loft window after they have stopped laying eggs. Maybe they will lay more eggs outside as well and visit the flowers in the garden, and even if not, the bats will enjoy eating them.

She has already reeled and thrown the silk from the cocoons which were of high enough quality to allow for it, so even if she never manages to spin silk properly she still has thread.

* * *

Niniji-sama doesn't come home; Naka-sama is so distressed by his death –right at the very end of the fighting, so late they even bring his body home rather than just his ashes– that she goes into labour early.

It ends up being two bodies on the pyre. Ohabari-sama takes over raising Hikaku, Hijiri and Hidaka, and Hikaku has to name his tiny, premature sister that Naka-sama's older sister Tsugi-san is wet-nursing alongside her own son. He calls her Benten; Kita stitches a patchwork blanket out of coloured cotton scraps as a gift and hides as many immune-boosting seals in it as she thinks she can get away with.

Winter arrives as she is snowed under with mending the coats of the living and taking apart coats whose owners are dead so the material can be reused elsewhere, the cold lingering in bitter frosty mornings and persistent sleet as she learns to spin her silk.

Silk is both easier and harder to spin than hemp. It is stronger and stretches much more, but the fibres are much finer and smoother as well as less even in length, which makes them difficult to handle. Well, her lower-quality wild silk is at least; she cheats a little with chakra to help her keep the thread thickness even, which had the added benefit of ensuring she will be able to stitch seals with it later.

She leaves the broken cocoons until last, as those fibres will be even shorter and will take far more care. In the end it is Grandma who spins those for her –while Kita spins more hemp in return– and shows her how the resulting thread is thicker and less even, but that in this case it is considered proof of quality and an indication of character. It really goes look nice in that shade of green.

Little Benten-chan survives the winter, much to many people's surprise. There is no war in the spring, which is a relief in some ways but stressful in others: just as her clan is all at home and dependent on whatever missions come in for income, so are the Senju. They have plenty of necessities stockpiled, but they are low on weaponry and iron and need to trade for lacquer and leather to replace and repair armour plates. Kita overhears her parents and Grandma talking about whether to trade her thrown thread directly or weave it into bolts first; there is not enough of the 'peace silk' to be worth weaving with unless it is turned into a shawl or obi, but Grandma judges the other three-quarters to be enough for two whole kimono, one of reeled silk and one of spun. There is also enough of Mama's silk that weaving a kimono's worth and then painting it would be a worthwhile investment, rather than her usual practice of weaving single bolts and dying them various different colours along with skeins of thread so that she does not run out of supplies for her patchwork.

War means looting, and several warriors brought back variously damaged kimonos of both cotton and silk, some of which were exchanged with Papa for wire or with Mama for discounts on new coats for growing sons and nephews. Mama is unlikely to run short, even if both Madara and Izuna need bigger coats this year and Tajima decides he wants a new one as well.

Papa says that the money from Kita's reeled silk kimono will be set aside for her dowry; not having even thought about marrying yet –she is _eleven_ – Kita finds that a little uncomfortable. It is a relief to be able to pretend she didn't hear anything and be gratefully accepting when the next morning Grandma 'suggests' that Kita allow her to weave all her wild silk into figured kimono they can then sell.

The whole point of bringing in the silk had been to provide more money for her family, so Kita is happy that it is helping. Mama is due to give birth any day now and the knowledge that there will be extra income to keep everybody fed is a tremendous relief.

That it is very likely that Mama will also be teaching her to paint on silk this year –she already knows how to paint on cotton, as that is how all the lower-ranking warriors' coat linings are decorated– is something to look forward to.

* * *

It is spring and Kita has a baby brother. A _brother_. Mama is over the moon over little Jōnen, but Kita is mostly tired. The house now has three adults and five children in and there's really not enough space for all of them. Her younger sisters might not notice, having grown up like this, but Kita remembers when it was just her, her parents and Grandma –well, and Shina for some of that– and she misses the quiet. She _really_ misses the quiet.

It being warm enough to sit on the engawa to work helps, even with all the rain. Most of the wind comes from the other side of the house, so the floor remains dry and she can sew a new coat for fourteen-year-old Madara –who has indeed grown right out of his old one– away from the noise and mess. Tateshina is learning from Grandma, so can hide in Grandma's room and watch as she weaves the wild silk to produce a complex crane figured pattern, but Naka is loud and cheerful and Midori is much the same, so the three-year-old is happy to bounce after her next-oldest sister and learn how to look after the quail and sweep the floors.

Izuna is not getting a new coat, despite having grown out of his old one; he will fit into Madara's old coat once Kita has taken it in a bit. She would have scavenged the Ryūjin design she stitched two years ago as materials for Madara's new coat lining, but Izuna had thrown a fit and insisted on keeping it and Tajima-sama has paid extra to let him, so Kita has sewn his old coat lining onto sturdy indigo canvas backing panels so it can be displayed and the loud thirteen-year-old has already carried it off to hang in his room.

Kita would be lying if she didn't admit to being a little flattered.

Madara's old Hare of Inaba coat needs a little touching up and she is probably going to entirely replace the outer layer and padding –so many patched burns and hastily-stitched tears– but the lining is fundamentally intact and that is what matters. Now she knows more about the evils of campaigning –everybody complained about their clothes smelling mouldy after too much rain and no coat has escaped unsinged from people using low-level fire techniques out of desperation– she has her medical disinfecting seal to add, which will probably work decently well against unpleasant smells and unwanted flora.

Hikaku is probably going to want a coat soon, now he is the head of his household with two little brothers and a baby sister to provide for. His only being twelve doesn't mean anything now his father is dead; Tajima will consider him old enough.

Madara's new coat is going to be adult sized, although it's not going to look it; Madara is not actually adult sized yet so his coat will be taken in at the seams and hems. He's vanishingly unlikely to manage to grow _out_ of it though, seeing as she's working off Tajima-sama's measurements in terms of total length. Tajima-sama has already paid in advance for a full-size coat, including extra gold and silver that Papa and Yae are turning into wire for her to transform into thread. Only the best for the heir to the clan, especially since Madara is probably going to be wearing this coat until it either falls apart or he dies in it.

All the more reason to reinforce it. He probably needs new undershirts too; she should offer to make them, 'to ensure everything is the right size' and sneak more seals into the seams.

* * *

When summer arrives Kita discovers that she has grown too tall for her yukata; she hadn't noticed at all. Grandma purses her lips and looks Kita up and down, making her realise that her calves are visible beneath the hem of her nagajuban and her wrists are sticking out of the sleeves as well. She suddenly feels unkempt.

"You," Grandma says forbiddingly, "are going to be tall. I can tell already. Minami, get one of your spare kimono out of storage while I ask Tsuyu for a yukata."

Auntie Tsuyu's husband Uncle Sefuri is a shinobi, and he buys her a new yukata every year or so just because he can. In the summer she wears them on alternate days, so as to show them all off and not wear out any one of them more than the others. Kita will probably end up wearing the oldest or plainest one, but that isn't really important when she is going to have her first adult yukata! And a proper grown up kimono as well! She gets to dress like an adult!

Grandma comes back with an unexpectedly new-looking yukata set showcasing a large water iris print. "Tsuyu thinks this one will look good on you, since you're going to be tall and have the proper Uchiha figure. Now take off your clothes and let me see how much this needs hemming."

Implied is that Auntie Tsuyu takes after the mother of Grandma's civilian father, who had apparently been short and stout. Grandma isn't very tall, but she isn't very wide either; Mama is taller, but also a bit more solidly built. If Grandma thinks Kita is going to have 'the proper Uchiha figure,' what that means is that she is probably going to be tall and slim. Tall like Mama, but slim like Grandma.

After standing still for the yukata fitting Kita has to let Grandma put Mama's clothes on her –plain undergarments as well as the very pretty hawk-brown kimono with an all-over hemp leaf pattern in red and beige with white accents– so that she can decide how much to turn them up. Kita will not be involved in that decision, so once Grandma is satisfied she changes back into the freshly hemmed yukata set and heads outside; her moths need more oak leaves to eat and Mama's need mulberry leaves.

After the success Papa had selling the kimono material Grandma made from her silk, Kita wants to continue contributing to the family. She is probably never going to be as good at weaving as Tateshina seems likely to become, but she can probably manage a simple Bishamon tortoiseshell pattern if she tries hard. She wants to be able to weave her own silk into more than just plain bolts. Yes, a plain kimono can be beautifully painted or embroidered –and she helped Mama decorate one with bush clover and vivid bellflowers against a delicate, almost misty blue-green background– but Kita is never going to be able to wear a painted kimono. She's not important enough to do the kind of official social visiting that requires a coloured tomesode or a tsukesage kimono.

A plain silk kimono with a subtly woven pattern however could be equivalent to either a very fine komon or an iromuji, which she could wear regularly. When she is twenty she will wear her lineage's old and very beautiful furisode for her coming-of-age and when she marries she will inherit a black tomesode from her husband's lineage –at best be given Grandma's, since Mama is her oldest daughter and Kita is Mama's oldest– but she secretly wants a new kimono of her own choosing. One that reflects her own tastes, not those of a relative or the wider clan.

It probably isn't going to happen until after she's completely grown up and maybe even married, but it's a nice dream to have. Mostly because it's something she can probably achieve with a little forethought and care, since it doesn't depend on anybody else getting involved.

* * *

It's a lean year as far as shinobi work goes, which means more pushing and posturing from the Senju and lots of injuries on patrols along the edge of Uchiha lands; Uncle Sefuri spends several weeks nursing broken ribs. This means a high demand for bandages, but also a need to wash all the used bandages so they can be reused. Kita is enlisted to help with the soaking in cold water to remove stains, then the boiling to properly cleanse impurities and the folding after the bandages have dried in the sunshine. She uses up most of her stash of infused thread to stitch sterilising and immune-boosting seals into more the bandages; it's a very worthy cause.

On the upside, there are fewer injuries on outside missions, but that is due to there being fewer missions at all, which in turn means less money. Tajima-sama travels to the capital for a month with his inner circle and returns with a permit to expand the Uchiha's farmland slightly, so they can grow more beans and grains. Most of it will be soy followed by buckwheat in the late summer, but there will be adzuki beans as well, probably winter squash and maybe another orchard. Next year, anyway; there is only enough time left before winter to fell the trees and clear the undergrowth in preparation for spring planting.

The tree felling at least provides its own opportunities; Kita spends some of her precious silk money on boards for proper caterpillar trays and carefully transfers the eggs the hatched moths have laid. Having cultivated this year's caterpillars from the egg, she had nearly twice as many as last year and had to do a lot of tree climbing for fresh leaves; she has planted three acorns in broken pots in the interests of maybe not still having to climb trees in five years' time. Mama just snips branches off her mulberry trees and Kita can probably do the same with oaks if she coppices them to stay short. She can even give the stripped branches to Papa later, to dry out then burn to charcoal.

Twice as many caterpillars mean twice as much silk; she only allows the same number of cocoons as last year to hatch, otherwise she would be completely overwhelmed come spring. Spinning all the lower-grade and hatched cocoons is going to be her main activity through the winter, but at least silk is valuable enough –and Tateshina and Naka are old enough– that Mama has reduced her chore load in light of her other contributions to the household. Her main domestic task these days is cooking, which Mama is using to teach her how to make all the various dishes that are served at different times of year and how to prepare all the different ingredients.

Kita has come a long way from wobbly rice balls made with clumsy three-year-old hands. She still has just as far to go though; she may be good at pickling by now but Mama expects her to be able to make tofu and miso and that's _hard_. At least Mama is also teaching her about all the different kinds of red bean paste as well, so she gets to make sweets in between wrestling with soya bean curd.

Just to emphasise how hard things have been this year, Tajima-sama escorts Hikaku to see Mama shortly after the first frosts and states that his nephew will require a coat in the spring. Actually making the coat will have to wait until Hikaku has been fitted for armour –the coat needs to go over the top– but advance warning means Mama can acquire appropriate materials and plan a suitable pattern. Hikaku is Niniji-sama's eldest after all, and Niniji-sama was Tajima-sama's brother.

Mama asks Kita about a pattern, because Mama knows Kita likes creating new patterns rather than just reproducing old ones and that she has come up with several. Niniji-sama died in the coat Mama had made for him to wear when he married, the coat with Susano-o turning Kushinada-hime back into a person after wearing her as a comb in his topknot while killing Yamata-no-Orochi. Niniji-sama's previous coat, which Kita had learned patchwork from, had shown Tsukuyomi slaying Uke Mochi and is a standard clan design belonging to the Amaterasu lineage. Younger sons in the Amaterasu lineage are allowed to wear Tsukuyomi, but as Izuna is wearing the Hare of Inaba –which is a new design Kita helped with and not claimed by any lineage– it is appropriate to offer it to Hikaku. Provided he doesn't want a new design, of course, or a different Tsukuyomi.

Madara's coat is a new design, and probably counts as a masterwork since Mama hasn't actually given her any new sewing lessons since she finished it. Tajima-sama's coat is a traditional design, Susano-o birthing five gods from Amaterasu's necklace, and he's been wearing it since he became clan head before Kita was even born. He did have another coat –one made for his wedding– but that one got completely destroyed in a Senju ambush during last year's war and he doesn't seem interested in replacing it yet.

Hikaku decides that he would like a coat like his father's first one, please, so Kita gets out the scroll with the pattern and starts talking about colours and metallic threads and prices as Mama watches silently over her tea. Tajima-sama watches attentively as Hikaku asks questions and chooses colours and bargains, face impassive but chakra approving. Hikaku is only thirteen, but Tajima-sama is probably thinking of preparing him to be one of Madara-sama's top subordinates alongside Izuna, so Hikaku showing that he can plan and ask good questions and make decisions that account for available resources is important for the clan.

Of course nobody cares that Kita is showing all those same skills; she's a girl and not a warrior so it's less relevant, even though she's a year younger than Hikaku. Her choices only affect her household, not the whole clan.

Once the haggling is over Tajima agrees to the price and arranges for Kita to be paid a third of it in advance, so she can acquire suitable materials from the storehouses and have metallic thread made. That way, when Hikaku has been fitted for his armour, he can immediately have his measurements taken and she can start.

His is not the only new coat she has been commissioned for this winter, but the others are all prints so take less time, even though they are in some ways fiddlier. Lots of messing around with print blocks and rice starch paste and dye baths, which isn't much fun in the cold as everything takes longer to dry, even if it's sunny. She will likely end up doing most of those all together in the early spring, spending every waking hour at work.

It's worth it though, to see the clan's shinobi walking around in coats she has made, with seals hidden in the lining to help protect them from harm. Mama will help, although she is spending much more time with little Jōnen that Kita can remember her doing with any of her other sisters when they were babies.

At least this year Tateshina has taken over spinning and weaving most of the hemp, so Kita only has to do as much as she needs for her own mending and seal-stitching.

* * *

Spring arrives but warmer weather does not; the frosts continue for weeks longer than usual, the rains come two months early and are frequently sleet, everybody is cold and wet and there is mud everywhere. Sneezes and coughs become a common sound and Yumiori-oba runs so short on throat soothers that the warrior patrols around Uchiha lands dig up wild liquorice when they can find it to bring home to her.

Kita does not suffer worse than a mild fever for two days and a tickly throat; her baby sisters and brother are similarly fortunate, as is her father, but Mama and Grandma are coughing and wheezing for weeks on end. Armed with undeniable proof that her immune-boosting seals are extremely effective, Kita offers her services to Yumiori-oba to tend to bedridden clansmen and is instantly snapped up. Taking her sewing with her, she makes tea and miso soup for feverish children and supports exhausted clanswomen, watching at bedsides so variously distant aunties in variously poor states of health can complete all the very necessary tasks that keep a household afloat.

In between her own work of quilting printed coats and completing Hikaku's patchwork coat lining, she helps wash kosode and underclothes and stitches her sharingan-shaped seals under the collars of shirts and slips in a bid to speed recovery. Kita has no idea how much it actually helps, but nobody has died yet. Then one morning she is sent to sit in Ohabari-san's house: Hijiri, Hidaka and Benten are all sick along with their aunt and Hikaku has been added to the patrol rota, wearing a borrowed coat to replace another ill person. Kita is healthy –a quality which is in short supply in the clan right now– the children know her and her current main project is _for_ Hikaku, so he is unlikely to complain if it is a little late because she prioritised his siblings' health.

Kita understands completely why Yumiori-oba picked her. It is however nerve-racking, because Ohabari-san's house is one of the finest in the clan –well it used to be Niniji-sama's house too, but Ohabari-san is the only adult living in it now– and everything in the house is of much higher quality than Kita is used to, right down to the dishes and the sheets. Grandma had talked about the main families of the clan's most prominent lineages having cotton sheets, but Kita hadn't quite grasped the implications before now. Imagine being able to just _buy_ all your sheets! All the material for growing children's undershirts as well! The only cotton kosode Kita owns is the one that came with the yukata set Auntie Tsuyu gave her!

This creates a problem: Kita does not have any chakra-infused cotton thread. Well, not fine enough to darn undershirts with anyway; her coat-quilting thread is cotton but it's sturdy, made of many finer strands twisted together. She ends up having to offer to do the laundry, which reveals the house's spools of thread used to assemble kimono, and has to put off everything until the following morning while a skein of thread from the spool sits on a hastily-constructed seal intended to slowly 'spin' her chakra into the cotton without damaging it.

A Homeguard patrol like Hikaku is filling in on is not just a march around the perimeter of the clan lands; each patrol is assigned to a specific area, where there's a hidden shelter with supplies and beds, and they stay in that area for up to a week at a time, keeping in contact with the patrols on either side several times a day. Kita is therefore going to be babysitting her sort-of friend's younger siblings –and trying to look after Ohabari-san, who refuses to stay in bed despite her fever– for quite a long time. It doesn't take very long for Hijiri to start complaining about the miso soup, despite all the ginger Kita is adding to it to clear their heads. It doesn't help that he's not much more than a year younger than her; he vacillates between being grumpy that a girl has been put in charge of him and wanting his mother.

Naka-sama has been dead for over a year now.

Kita sings songs, keeps the children hydrated and manages to whisk Hidaka out onto the engawa in time for him to be sick over the edge on the ground outside rather than on the futon. She talks about the mostly-finished patchwork she is making for their brother's new coat, tells them the story of Uke Mochi and Tsukuyomi –both boys find the idea of a goddess vomiting up food to be disgusting yet hilarious– and sits on the engawa as they nap in the middle of the day, Benten tied to her back and snuffling as Kita sews seal after seal into shirt collars, the white-on-white in the dim light from the overcast sky requiring far more concentration than her patchwork; she only has the metallic accents left now and those are easily seen even in the late afternoon.

Setting the last child-sized undershirt aside, Kita rolls her shoulders and stretches her neck –then almost jumps out of her skin.

Tajima-sama is standing at the far end of the engawa where it turns the corner around the house, body still and chakra muffled but eyes sharingan red with tomoe spinning lazily as he watches her.

"So you are the clan's mysterious sealing spirit," he muses, stepping closer. "The Toyotama girl; how old are you?"

Kita is not surprised that Tajima-sama only knows her by her lineage. She is not exactly significant enough to the clan's governance and defence for him to consider her name important. "My twelfth birthday was in December, Tajima-sama," she murmurs, not daring to stand but tilting her face up so she can keep an eye on his hands.

She has his niece strapped to her back. He is probably not going to hurt her.

He nods, his chakra pulsing with a sudden burst of satisfaction. "I will talk to your parents."

He turns and walks away back around the corner of the building, leaving Kita behind with her hands shaking in the aftermath of the adrenaline rush as she struggles to breathe evenly. What is going to happen to her now?


	2. Chapter 2

Madara is one of maybe forty people in the entire clan who has barely been ill at all, so he is arranging patrol routes and making sure everybody assigned to patrols is in good enough health to complete them. This weather has been miserable for everybody so the Senju are staying inside their own borders as much as the Uchiha are, and what few missions the clan has been offered have been mainly to do with rescuing people and livestock from floodwaters. Madara had not realised until those missions started coming in that walking on water is a skill with civilian applications that customers are willing to pay for. It's something he's sure his father will have made a note of, if it hasn't happened before already –easy missions mean easy money– for all that the weather that brings in such missions carries with it all kinds of associated problems.

The weather really is utterly abysmal; if it continues like this it will affect the rice planting by washing away the seedlings, which means in turn that the clan is likely to be hired for another trade war next year, as retaliation for the coming autumn's inevitable rise in prices and reduced availability. Madara is already not looking forward to it; they still haven't fully replenished the Outguard's strength from the proxy war between Tea and Fire the year before last. True, the Senju aren't likely to have recovered either, but that doesn't make things better. It doesn't put the Uchiha in a better place overall.

It just means that the Senju are in as desperate straits as his clan is, so are just as likely to jump at the money being offered despite the projected losses. Having more money–

Someone knocks against the shōji separating the document room from the clan house's formal reception room, then slides it open. "Madara, Father's called a meeting; you need to make tea."

Madara carefully rolls up the scrolls detailing the clan's recent finances and stores and slides them back into their respective places on the shelves. "Have you put the kettle over the fire?"

Izuna huffs. "Of course I did! I got out the good tea too; not the matcha –it's just an in-clan meeting with some of the elders of the most prominent lineages– but you'll have to brew it and serve it since I'm not invited."

Madara will also have to dress appropriately for such a meeting; his father insists on it, as formality engenders appropriate respect. "Watch the kettle while I change."

His little brother shouts, "Brush your hair!" after him as he hurries off to their bedroom to remove his armour and trousers and find his hakama. His usual coat is an all-purpose garment, so he can wear it indoors over formalwear; it is certainly cold enough that everybody else will be wearing their coats as well, his father included.

* * *

It's a very small meeting, likely because most of the people who should be here are too sick to leave their houses. There's great-uncle Moreya, the only living elder of the Amaterasu lineage, great-aunt Tamayori representing the Yatagarasu lineage, Kashima of the Raiden lineage and Akaishi, Madara's father's right hand who has no known lineage at all.

Of course Madara's father is also present as the Outguard Head, but usually in these meetings there are two people present from the main family of each of the clan's documented lineages and a pair of elders representing clan members with no known lineage. This is just three lines out of eight, each with a single representative; not even a quarter of a council and nowhere near enough people to make any meaningful decisions for the entire clan.

Madara serves tea and does not comment. He will ask any questions he still has at the end of this meeting later and in private.

"What's this about then, Tajima-sama," Elder Moreya grumbles after drinking his tea, coughing wetly into a handkerchief.

Father smiles. "I have located the clan's mysterious sealing spirit," he says lightly, evidently relishing his triumph. The brief outcry from the elders is to be expected; the business with the unknown seals popping up has been going on for nearly three years now and there have never been any leads, which is why the matter has been kept strictly confidential until now. For his father to have found the perpetrator is proof of his fitness for leadership and will force those elders who used this to question his authority to back down.

"Who is it then?" Elder Kashima demands testily. "Somebody's supposedly-civilian husband? One of Sannosawa's students playing with forces beyond their control?"

"Minami's daughter, the new Toyotama coat-maker," Father replies smugly. "I caught her stitching seals into my nephews' undershirts."

Madara nearly drops his tea. He knows who his father is talking about; she made his new coat and is making one for Hikaku to wear this year. Her name… he can't remember her name. His father's never spoken it and she's never introduced herself with it. He knows what she looks like though, can see her in his mind with a craftsperson's apron over a red kimono, her braid dangling down her back, and he's _sure_ that she's younger than Izuna!

"Fushimi's granddaughter, little Kita?" Elder Tamayori says into the shocked silence. "Tajima, she's _twelve_. Are you saying we were all outwitted by a _child_?"

"I have spoken to her parents and examined their home," the Outguard Head says steadily. "Many seals are in evidence on their children's clothing, matching those woven into the bandages we took on campaign, and the script on her embroidery patterns is from the same hand as the seals painted under every roof of the clan compound. There are seals under their hearth-stones, seals under the edge of their wooden floor and many, many more seals stitched into the linings of the coats piled up in her work-basket. Ikoma assures me that his daughter has never left clan grounds, has never met anybody out-clan and admitted that he was aware of her deftness and precision in using her chakra despite her mediocre reserves."

Madara is reluctantly impressed. Both with the girl for hiding this for so long and with his father for admitting they have spent three years running around looking for a civilian girl who makes clothes and probably didn't even realise they were looking for her. He takes a mouthful of tea to hide his amusement at the Elders' expressions.

"I have negotiated with her parents and arranged her betrothal to my eldest son," his father continues; Madara almost chokes. "She will immediately move in with my sister, who will instruct her as appropriate for a future Head of Homeguard and wife to someone of my son's station. The wedding will take place after her coming-of-age."

Madara does some desperate mental arithmetic, determines that he has eight years to get to know his betrothed in before he is expected to marry her and breathes a quiet sigh of relief.

"The usual caveats are in place," his father continues, indicating that if either he or her –Kita, Elder Tamayori said her name is Kita– falls desperately in love with somebody else the contract will be dissolved with appropriate compensation made by the party dissolving it, "and with her and her family's needs provided for, she will be better positioned to supply the whole clan."

In other words, his father had acted immediately to gain control over the unexpected sealing specialist, succeeded and now access to seals depends on people's personal allegiance to him rather than on being able to afford her services or cajoling her into helping them. It's a heavy-handed and not at all subtle means to expand and affirm his power and influence after the elders have used this whole debacle to undermine him over the past few years; Madara's not sure how he would do otherwise in his father's place though. Possibly inform his theoretical son _beforehand_ so he didn't choke on his tea in public at the news.

"How did she get missed?" Elder Moreya demands, coughing again. "I know we spoke to Kumami as well as Sannosawa; if Kita has such a steady hand and quick mind as to pursue sealing she should have been mentioned when this was investigated the first time!" Kumami-san and Sannosawa-sensei teach the clan's children to read and write, Kumami-san the girls and Sannosawa-sensei the boys.

"At home Kita prefers to write with her left hand; Kumami does not permit such in her schoolroom."

Madara pulls a face; he isn't the only one. A left-handed shinobi has the advantage of surprise over his enemy, so what's wrong with using the left hand to write with as well? This is clearly something that needs addressing, as without Kumami-san's prejudice this mystery would have been solved much sooner.

"Your son's betrothal is a family matter and not subject to the approval of the wider clan," Kashima says sourly, setting his empty tea cup down on the table. "My congratulations on your most advantageous alliance, Tajima-sama, Madara-kun."

"Thank you, Elder," Madara manages, bowing his head politely. The meeting ends shortly thereafter, much to his relief; he had _not_ been expecting a betrothal, especially not to a girl three years younger than he is.

He's never had a conversation with Kita-san, but he will definitely have to try. His father has gone to a lot of effort to arrange this and if he doesn't get along with her, it will probably be arranged for her to marry Izuna instead; his father will not want her outside the authority of their immediate family. She seemed polite and agreeable at his coat fittings and he heard her mother say to his father that the design was an original one, which means that nobody else in the entire history of the clan has ever had a coat like his.

Leaving his father, Madara dashes back to his room so he can take the coat off and have another look at the patchwork lining. Father always says you can tell a lot about a person by their achievements.

Izuna is of course waiting for him in the hall and has definitely been eavesdropping. "You're getting _married_ , Madara?!"

"Not yet!" He hisses, hurrying into the bedroom. Izuna closes the shōji behind them and watches as Madara strips out of his coat, turning the sleeves inside-out.

Kneeling on the lower back is Izanagi, washing his face in the river with his clothes and accessories strewn behind him across the lower third of the right front panel. Springing from the water streaming from his eyes and nose are Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi and Susano-o, Amaterasu in the middle of the back, Susano-o on the right panel and Tsukuyomi on the left panel. The river edge wanders diagonally from middle of the back hem to middle left, then down the left sleeve with the moon and stars glittering above it. The right sleeve is full of swirling storm clouds, complete with little flashes of lightning.

If he turns the coat completely inside out, the sun and moon will be on the backs of his shoulders and Susano-o's head will be over his heart.

It's beautiful. Madara has already admired it –multiple times, honestly– but now he's thinking about what kind of person sees this in their head, then manages to draw it out on paper well enough for it to count as art. Has the patience to sew it with such tiny stitches. Kita doesn't even have a sharingan –Father would have said so– and she made this? All this effort and care in something he's regularly getting mud, blood and who-knows-what-else on? How many times has he almost set his sleeve cuffs on fire now?

He _needs_ to take better care of his coat.

"Who are you marrying?!"

His brother is relentless. "It's not for _eight years_ , Izuna; we've got to both be old enough first. And it's the girl who made our coats; Father found out she was drawing the seals all over the compound."

Izuna glares. "Seriously? She doesn't even have sharingan! Who teaches a civilian girl about seals anyway?"

"She's self-taught."

Izuna blinks and his entire attitude changes. "Oh, so she's a genius? What, it's true!" He protests at Madara's dumbfounded expression. "Father's been trying to find out who was behind this for _years_. Kita-chan's younger than _me_ , she must have been eight or something when she started! Not even your precious Hashirama's that good!"

"Hashirama's not _my_ anything!" Wait a minute. "Izuna, how do you know her name?"

His little brother huffs. "She was Yahiko's friend," he says shortly, "and Hikaku knows her. She was there when Toku-chan died and screamed loud enough that Father and Uncle arrived in time to save Hijiri when the Senju raided us."

Madara hadn't realised that Kita is the same age as Yahiko would be now. It hurts; in his memories –memories that are not sharingan-sharp, so he is doomed to lose them completely– Yahiko is seven and will be seven forever. "She saved Hijiri?"

Izuna nods. "Hikaku says she gave him that Yatagarasu blanket for Benten too, when everybody else was expecting her to die. Hey, do you think she put seals in the blanket? Ohabari-oba was really surprised that Benten lived through the winter."

Madara likes the idea of a girl who will give seals to a premature orphaned baby to help them survive and never say a word about it. It implies that Kita actually _cares_ about the clan, not just about her standing _in_ it or in having her efforts recognised _by_ it. That places her above quite a lot of his closer relatives. "We'll have to ask her; Father said she was moving into Ohabari-oba's house." At least she's young enough to not behave strangely about the whole betrothal thing. Hopefully.

"Today?"

"Probably _not_ today," Madara concedes; "or tomorrow either. Everybody's still sick."

"Kita-chan isn't sick," Izuna notes perceptively. "And we're not sick. Do you think she stitched seals on our clothes too? She made your undershirts, didn't she? I saw her mending Father's once."

That is something else he will have to check right now. Seals are hard to recognise because they have no external chakra, but the sharingan reveals even the tiniest of details and now Madara knows that Kita's seals are stitched, he knows what to look for. "Let's find out."

* * *

Kita is twelve. Kita doesn't _want_ to move away from her parents.

Kita recognises that in this matter she does not have a choice.

Kita puts on a brave face for her little sisters, who are all incredibly excited that she is betrothed to Madara-sama like the girls in her fairy stories, who work hard and do good things and get noticed by rulers. Grandma watches her knowingly, pats her hands and promises to visit in the autumn to help her with her silk. Papa hugs her and tells her how Tajima-sama has given them an entire extra field, which means Mama can expand the vegetable garden again and possibly plant a few more mulberry trees, so that when Tateshina is older she can weave silk as well as hemp. Auntie Tsuyu will also be able to make more paper as Mama plans to plant more hemp, and paper is something that is useful to the clan and sells well. They may even buy paper mulberry saplings, so the clan can start making its own washi.

Mama takes Kita aside into hers and Papa's room, opens her wardrobe and shows Kita her kimono. There's the pine green one with the wavy gold bamboo print that Mama is wearing already and the pale blue one with the big white sakura print that Mama only wears in spring. Then there's a kimono Kita has never seen Mama wear: it is a light, vivid green like new shoots painted with delicately swirling purple wisteria blossom and darker green leaves arching across the body and up the back, with additional smaller sprays hanging down the sleeves, all curving and flowing as though blown by the wind.

"Mama it's beautiful!"

"It belonged to Grandma's mother; she was more highly placed in our lineage than we are," Mama explains. "Grandfather –my grandfather– bought it when he was courting her." She carefully lifts it out, showing Kita the peach-blossom pink nagajuban that goes with it, soft cotton printed with a scattering of vibrantly blue butterflies, and the undershirt and slip in pale, purple-tinged blue.

The next kimono is familiar and very clearly made by Grandma: it is woven in deep and pale pink, with a magnificent and very complicated pattern which combines clouds with rippling water and clematis vines. "I wore this all the time after I married, right up until you were born. I stopped wearing it because I didn't want to ruin it, so it's just for festivals now." Mama only wears it a few times a year, but she always looks beautiful in it.

"Will you wear it every day once Jōnen is older?"

"Maybe." That kimono goes away again and Mama takes out a different one. This one is in pale iris purple, with a detailed but subtle pattern of plum blossom and birds. "Grandma made this one too."

"It's very pretty." It is; not many people wear purple. Purple is very hard to dye consistently as it's usually made by dyeing red over indigo or vice-versa, but this particular shade comes from water iris stems so it takes a lot of work to gather enough to dye an entire kimono. Even in a pale tint.

"Grandma made it as a gift for her mother. It's yours now; you will need a silk kimono to wear on special occasions, as you are representing our lineage to the clan head. We are giving you the wisteria kimono as well; I have a cream and gold obi Grandma made that you can wear with both."

"Mama?"

"When you are more settled you can buy yourself a plain obi and embroider it any way you wish," Mama tells her quietly, pulling out a deep charcoal nagajuban with a plain collar, the body printed with green-grey bamboo stalks and rosy orange crickets. "You are going to be the clan head's wife, so once you are married you will wear the kimono of the Amaterasu lineage. Your spinning is fine enough that you can make yourself a plain obi of wild silk, or even a whole kimono if you wish, although it will be impossible to paint on so you will have to limit yourself to embroidery. I expect you to keep your cotton kimono for everyday for the time being, then a plain or printed silk kimono once you begin to be comfortable in your new role; one made from spun silk is less formal than one from reeled silk. The woven kimono is for informal gatherings, tea ceremonies and festivals, the painted kimono for formal occasions where you must stand before outsiders as the clan heir's betrothed. You may well be given other kimonos for such occasions," Mama adds, "but these are part of your dowry. As will be your great-grandmother's Toyotama kurotomesode and matching accessories, which you are _not_ to try on until _after_ you are married."

"I promise Mama." Kita sniffs; she is trying not to cry but it is hard.

"Hush my little winter's child; you're not going so far away. You will see all of us around the compound and nobody will keep you from visiting."

"But I won't be able to come home anymore."

Mama hugs her and lets her cry into her kimono. "You will have a new home, north-star," she croons, stroking Kita's hair, "and you are such a strong, clever girl to have caught Tajima-sama's eye. He came to _us_ to ask for _you_ , despite you being so young and our place in the clan lowly, and he wants you for his firstborn. This is your opportunity, a way you have made for yourself. Don't hesitate."

Kita wipes her eyes on her apron and tries to settle. "I'll work hard, Mama."

"I know you will, north-star." Mama smiles at her. "The gods have blessed me with such a dutiful and thoughtful firstborn."

Kita giggles. "Thank you, Mama." This is going to be very hard, but she can do it. Even though she's never had a proper conversation with Madara before and is going to be buried under new kinds of lessons she doesn't even want for several years.

"And don't think this will get you out of making coats," Mama mock-scolds her. "You have the eye for it and Naka is _much_ less attentive than you were at six, so she will not be nearly good enough to take over for at _least_ eight years. Our quilted coats are a jewel of the clan and you have far too much talent there to squander; I will be sending you off with all my scraps and threads and designs."

"But Mama!"

"Naka is not you; she will take better to learning to dye and paint and quilt first and those skills will serve her better in helping me make and maintain the coats of the wider clan. It will also give Tateshina the opportunity to work with silk, which she has earned, and give me time to nurture some new saplings so I can breed enough silkworms for both weaving and patchworking in a year or two. Barring unexpected disaster, it will be _years_ before any new patchwork coats need to be made and by then I will have replenished my scrap bag. The designs are better off kept safe with you; I have always fretted about them, what with this house not being as fine as my grandmother's was. If I ever need one I know where to find you."

Kita realises this is Mama giving herself excuses to visit and stops protesting. Things will be different, but that doesn't mean they will be bad.

* * *

Just because her whole world has been upended does not mean Kita is getting out of looking after Hikaku's younger siblings and Ohabari-san. So after kissing her own siblings goodnight and agreeing with Mama that it's best _not_ to move her trays full of caterpillar eggs until the rain stops, she heads back to Ohabari-san's house to watch over Hijiri, Hidaka and Benten for the night.

This time however she takes her bag of sealing notes and practice scraps. If people know, she can switch between sewing Hikaku's coat and trying out new seal ideas. The rain is lighter now –barely more than a drizzle– but no less wet, so she makes sure to wear her hat and her own coat. It's not a proper warrior coat, double-quilted with a heavy cotton outer layer and a coarse canvas core, but it's still warm and keeps her dry.

A hydrophobic seal would be a good idea. Something to make water roll off the outer layer of the coat rather than soaking into it. Well, would be a good idea for a rain cover; a coat you can't get wet would be a very bad idea in battle when people are throwing fire around. Even with fire-retarding seals; no Uchiha would _ever_ be foolish enough to oil or wax their coat. Also, how would she ever be able to wash it?

Arriving at Ohabari-san's house, Kita takes off her shoes, hangs up her hat and coat to dry in the genkan and makes her own way inside, stopping dead after opening the shōji that separates the front hall from the main reception room.

"Kita-san. Come in and sit down," Tajima-sama invites, inclining his head towards the side of the table closest to her, tomoe spinning gently black on scarlet in his eyes. He is sitting beside Ohabari-san, his second to his right and Grandpa Yamasachi on Ohabari-san's left, all four of them watching her over their tea. Grandpa Yamasachi is the head of the Toyotama lineage that Kita belongs to and insists on everybody in the lineage calling him 'grandpa,' despite Kita being rather distantly related to him. She thinks he is Grandma's cousin or second cousin, maybe.

Kita closes the shoji behind her and shuffles up to the table, carefully seating herself seiza as appropriate for such a formal occasion, taking off her apron and setting it down beside her under her bag. "Yamasachi-jī-san," she says, addressing her lineage's elder first as protocol demands, "Tajima-sama, Ohabari-san. Sir," she adds, glancing at the man whose name she does not know.

"We need to discuss your sealing, Kita-chan," Grandpa Yamasachi tells her firmly but not unkindly. "Tajima-sama knows your parents were unaware of your experiments, so they will not be censured for allowing you to pursue such a dangerous art unsupervised, but you must provide the clan with a list of all the seals you have created, their function, how rigorously you have tested them and where you have placed them."

"I was made aware of sealing placed on clan buildings three summers ago, when Akaishi" –Tajima-sama gestures towards his second– "witnessed a lightning strike on the clan hall that revealed a seal channelling the strike into the ground, leaving the roof intact. His discovery led to closer inspections of other clan buildings, revealing many more seals but a limited range of designs." Akaishi reaches down to the floor beside him and produces a stack of sketches, laying them out on the table. "Over time, more seals were discovered."

Recognising her cue, Kita leans forwards and gingerly spreads the drawings out. The top sketch is a very dramatic rendition of the instant a lightning bolt hit the suzume-otori on the clan hall, sizzling energy clearly visible snaking along the grounding line around the edge of the roof and down a corner pillar to the ground. "This is a grounding seal," she murmurs as Ohabari-san pours a cup of tea and places it in front of her. "It has two parts: the head, which is painted in a high place to attract lighting, and the tail which connects the head to the ground so that the lightning can be discharged harmlessly. The lightning is attracted to the head, rather than striking another part of the building likely to be damaged. The seal creates an area around the object it is placed on where lighting cannot do damage, so that whatever the head seal is attached to doesn't catch on fire." She reaches out for the edge of the teacup, fingers grazing it nervously. "I have painted this seal on every suzume-otori in the clan compound."

Tajima-sama does not give away in either body or chakra whether or not this is a surprise to him. Akaishi takes notes as she speaks, occasionally scribbling diagrams that have the same shape as some of her gestures and illustrate her words.

The next sketch is of her umbrella seal. Kita sips her tea –really fine sencha, possibly even a first picking– then explains that one too, followed by the fire prevention seals, fire dampening seals, anti-vermin seals and the seals against decay and physical damage. She explains how the decay prevention seals can interfere with the pickling and fermentation process, so have a very limited effective range and need to be applied directly onto containers of fresh foods rather than on entire buildings. The seals on the buildings are to prevent the wood itself rotting.

She finishes her tea. Ohabari-sama pours new tea for everybody as Akaishi gathers up the sketches and changes scrolls.

"What about these seals?" Tajima-sama asks, laying a roll of bandage and one of Madara-sama's undershirts on the table.

Kita starts with the bandage. "The sharingan eye seal strengthens the body by proximity, improving its ability to recognise infection and fight it off. It encourages the immune system to be like the sharingan, alert and attentive to all possible threats in order to swiftly counter them. The skull and crossed bones is a sterilisation seal, to reduce the possibility of infection developing at all. Both of them draw on ambient chakra, so they're not very powerful and do run out after a while, but they can draw more chakra in and start working again if they are left unused for a little while. The integrity seal is meant to draw on the body's memory of its condition before the injury, to encourage everything to heal in its proper alignment and reduce scarring. I don't know how well that one works as I couldn't test it."

Tajima-sama turns back the collar of the undershirt, revealing where somebody has smeared ash to make the seal stitching stand out. Washing that off is going to be really irritating; she hopes she's not expected to do it. "There are glands in the throat which swell when a person is fighting an infection," she explains, one hand rising to her own throat. "I felt that putting the sharingan seals close to those glands was a good compromise, as they are discreet yet reasonably close to both the mouth and nose; many illnesses are contracted through breathing." She opens the undershirt, revealing another ashy seal stitched into the armpit. "The sterilisation seal also prevents bad smells developing," she admits with as much aplomb as she can manage. "I heard all kinds of complaints about mouldy clothing and persistent smells after the last campaign."

Akaishi hastily sips his tea to disguise his smirk and Tajima-sama's chakra sparkles with amusement despite his stony face and intent gaze.

"Also, the sharingan seals might not be good for pregnant women," Kita adds scrupulously. "Since it might encourage their body to attack and miscarry the unborn child. I didn't put any on my mother's clothes."

"A wise precaution," Grandpa Yamasachi assures her gravely. "You have shown appropriate caution and been admirably responsible, although you properly should have approached myself or Fuji-san before even attempting a seal. They can be extremely dangerous. However as it has been determined that you were never actually _taught_ that," his tone sharpens abruptly, "you will not be punished for your ignorance, but only because nobody has been harmed by it."

Kita bows. "Thank you, Grandpa Yamasachi."

"Are there any other seals you have made?" Tajima-sama asks mildly. Kita can't tell if he's found more seals he wants her to confess to or if he's admitting he doesn't think he's found them all. Best not to risk it; getting in trouble for lying would be very stupid right now.

"I stitched a lot of seals into the canvas lining of Madara-sama and Izuna-sama's coats," she admits, "and into other people's coats as well. I have a calming seal –it's not very strong but it helps a person think through anger– a seal to sharpen reflexes that mostly works when a person is tired, so it's more of a reflex maintenance seal than actually _improving_ them, a seal that improves dexterity –I don't know how that one works but I haven't dropped anything since stitching it into my sleeve cuffs– and a seal that reduces nightmares."

"How can a seal reduce nightmares?" Akaishi asks, abruptly interested.

"Um, what makes dreams scary isn't what you see in them, it's how you feel in them," Kita explains cautiously. "I've had scary dreams where nothing actually happened and dreams where really terrible things happened but it wasn't scary. So the seal sort of dampens painful emotions while you're sleeping, so you don't feel scared or angry while dreaming. That one definitely works," she adds, "I tested it on myself a lot before stitching it anywhere else."

She sips her tea as Akaishi and Tajima-sama exchange significant glances. She's not sure what that is about.

"I, there's another seal," she goes on, "I put it in Izuna-sama's first coat, along with the fire dampening seal, and in Madara-sama's coats later. It's a strengthening seal; it works on the coat itself, binding the fibres in each individual thread together so they are less likely to break. I mean, it's probably not going to stop a sword but it could cushion a glancing blow, maybe? I know it works at least a bit because I tested it with Mama's kitchen knives."

"A very useful seal," Tajima-sama agrees; the spinning tomoe in his eyes make being the focus of his attention even more intimidating than usual. "Could you teach others to apply these seals, Kita-chan?"

"Maybe?" she prevaricates. "Um, my seals make sense to _me_ , but if they don't make sense to other people then they might not be able to get them to work. Um, and my stitched seals are _only_ stitched, so the person I was teaching would have to learn to embroider too. Stitching seals is completely different to writing them, as you have to hold the entire seal in your mind until it's finished. Because thread is continuous, but an inked seal is written in separate strokes and only comes together at the end when it's activated."

"Something to revisit later," Tajima-sama decides, setting his tea cup down on the table. "For the time being you will continue to apply and maintain these seals in bandages and on the coats of the clan, and keep written notes of other seals you are developing. Once you have a new seal, you will approach Akaishi if it has a martial application or Yamasachi-san if it is a civilian seal, and they will supervise the testing process. Should the seal pass testing, it will be submitted to myself for approval. From now on you are _only_ to apply approved seals to clan structures and materials. Your current seals save the integrity seal are all approved; Yamasachi-san will speak to Yumiori-san about testing that one on volunteers or animals, so we can be certain of its effects. You are to unravel every instance of that seal from the clan's bandage supply as punishment for your carelessness."

"Yes, Tajima-sama." Kita bows; he is right, she was incredibly thoughtless there. She should have known better.

"Ohabari will teach you what you need to know to become a good wife to my son and a proper Head of the Homeguard," Tajima concludes, sharingan fading from his eyes as he rises from the table. "Given the intelligence and skills you have already shown, I do not believe it will take you very long to learn."

Then he leaves, Akaishi right behind him with an armful of papers and the soiled undershirt. At least they aren't making her wash it.

"That went tolerably well, all things considered," Grandpa Yamasachi says dryly after the front door closes. "Have another cup of tea, Kita-chan; Tajima's attention is not good for the nerves."

Kita accepts more tea. Something about both Grandpa's and Ohabari-san's non-reaction to Tajima-sama's statement that she will be Home Head is making her uneasy. "Grandpa?"

"Yes, Kita-chan?"

"I thought being Head of the Homeguard was a position reserved for a member of the Amaterasu lineage. I mean, that's what Grandma taught me." Surely Ohabari-san should be Head of the Homeguard, being the most senior member of the Amaterasu lineage after Tajima-sama?

"When Tajima-sama became Head of the Outguard he insisted that his wife Hitomi become Homeguard Head," Ohabari-san replies mildly. "Since her death the clan has not had an official Home Head, as Tajima deemed it unnecessary. My brother Niniji took on some of the responsibilities for a time, but he too is dead now."

The way Ohabari-san says that has _really_ uncomfortable implications, considering Niniji-sama died right at the _end_ of the proxy war between Fire and Tea. "I don't feel _qualified_ to be Home Head," Kita attempts. "I wasn't raised in my lineage's main family, so do not know the people or have any concept of the pressures involved. Yes, I am likely to become Madara-sama's wife, but that is in itself a full-time position; I do not wish to neglect my duties to him. I also have my sealing, which requires me to consider the needs of the clan as a whole, Homeguard and Outguard." She hesitates. "It would be inappropriate of me to take on more responsibilities than I am capable of devoting my attention to."

"A most wise observation for one so young," Ohabari-san muses into her tea.

"Of course, it is only proper that I know _about_ the Homeguard and its inner workings, since Madara-sama is likely to succeed his father as Outguard Head at some point and will need a neutral perspective," Kita continues, feeling slightly surer of her footing in this very perilous conversation now, "so I have no objections whatsoever towards learning whatever you can teach me about the clan, Ohabari-san." Hopefully her implications there are sufficiently clear.

"Call me Auntie; you are marrying my nephew after all," Ohabari-san says, fondness infusing her tone ever so slightly. "I agree that you will need a very thorough education on the clan to be a good wife to the future Head of the Outguard, and that your sealing should of course take precedence over any additional responsibilities that might be offered to you. Once everybody's health has improved and the weather is better I will begin introducing you to the relevant individuals and provide you with suitable context."

"As will I and your Granny Fuji, Kita-chan," Grandpa Yamasachi adds, tone arch. "Having multiple perspectives on past political upsets is very important to achieving a full understanding of events."

Ohabari-oba snorts. Clearly they know each-other very well to tease like that.

"Finish your tea, Kita-chan, then go and sit with the little ones," Ohabari-oba concludes, producing a handkerchief from her sleeve and coughing into it. "I will be turning in shortly as well; I will speak to Yumiori about the bandages in the morning."

"Shall I make breakfast in the morning, Auntie?"

"I would be most grateful, Kita-chan."

* * *

Kita spends the next two days unpicking seals from the clan's bandage stock and explaining seriously to Hijiri and Hidaka that she did something she shouldn't have, but that since nobody had _said_ she shouldn't have and nobody got hurt by her mistake, she just has to undo what she did rather than being punished. Both boys accept this explanation as logical and ignore her thereafter; they're both much better but still very tired, so spend most of both days sleeping and eating. Kita makes sure to cover them up again when they throw their blankets off; the fever might make them think that they're hot, but if they chilled now that could get very dangerous for them.

Uchiha are not as vulnerable to high temperatures as regular civilians, being a clan fire natured due to chakra affinity, so fevers are less dangerous. Exposure however is a real killer, so keeping everybody warm is essential.

Active chakra circulation helps there. It means she can sit still on the engawa wearing two layers of padded undergarments under her kimono and her coat and not be cold despite the freezing rain bucketing down within arm's reach. The shōji behind her is open a crack to allow for air circulation, but the boys are buried under six layers of blankets on the futon inside and Benten is strapped to Kita's back _between_ her padded layers.

She looks ridiculous, but the toddler is warm and that's what matters.

The next day she has to cook a more substantial breakfast for ravenous recovering boys who run around the entire house, their enthusiasm and energy punctuated by hacking base coughs that Ohabari-oba finds very alarming indeed, so after breakfast Kita dresses then in all the warm layers she can find, adds coats on top and lets them loose in the garden. The rain's not very heavy at the moment and they clearly need the exercise.

Neither Hijiri nor Hidaka falls into the koi pond inside the first five minutes, but it is a very near thing. Kita watches then from the engawa, busily stitching the silver-wrapped thread in lines emerging from the moon above Tsukuyomi's head and lightly reflecting off his bloodied sword. More silver accents will be added to the dismembered goddess lying at his feet; Hikaku had argued for silver only, which meant objectively more metallic thread overall and Tajima-sama had liked because this way only he and his sons have gold thread embroidery in their coats.

Well, sooner or later some other lineage's heir is probably going to want a coat, but they won't have the main pantheon on theirs; that is for the Amaterasu lineage only.

She senses Madara-sama's arrival before he even takes his shoes off in the genkan; unlike his father, his chakra presence is neither quiet nor subtle.

"Good morning, Madara-sama," she says as he steps into the room behind her. The sudden scrape of the tatami against the floor under his feet suggests she has surprised him.

"You're a sensor?" and that is _not_ Madara-sama. Izuna is evidently much more subtle, in chakra terms at least. Kita half-turns, so as to look at her guests without losing track of the boys.

"Only barely, Izuna-sama; your father snuck up on me very effectively a few days ago. Your brother however has very loud chakra."

"Loud?" Madara-sama asks, walking past her through the open shōji and carefully settling himself on the engawa, his chakra swamping the area around her like a faintly sizzling cloud and obscuring her senses. He is wearing his coat reversed, showing off her patchwork.

Kita hums. "Maybe 'looming' is a better word," she muses, daring to tease a little. "Like a thundercloud, visible from a considerable distance and exerting pressure all around you."

Izuna falls over laughing on the tatami. "It's like she _knows_ you, brother!"

Madara-sama reddens, glaring daggers at his brother before his gaze slides back to hers. "My father's chakra is quiet?"

Kita pauses in her embroidery. "Tajima-sama is very contained," she explains, "he keeps most of his emotions and motives hidden within himself, where they can only be guessed at, and when he wishes to pass unnoticed he obscures his chakra entirely, sliding behind the background hum of the wider world. Madara-sama is highly expressive; everything is visible and external and written very large."

"My brother lacks subtlety," Izuna agrees cheerfully, "and drop the 'sama,' Kita-chan; you're going to _marry_ him, you can _definitely_ be personal with both of us."

Madara shuffles, radiating acute embarrassment like sunlight through mist, but echoes, "I would prefer it, Kita-san."

"Madara-kun then." This is a very confusing conversation on multiple levels. "You may also be more personal if you wish, Madara-kun."

"Thank you, Kita-chan." The gangling fifteen-year-old hesitates, the chakra billowing around him undirected and hesitant. "Um, do you think I could learn to be quieter? With my chakra, I mean?"

"It's your chakra, so yes," Kita agrees candidly. "Your reserves must be gigantic, for you to be able to bleed it all over the place like that and not notice."

"He's a huge great lump," Izuna confirms wickedly, leaning over Kita's shoulder to peer at her embroidery. "Hey, is that Tsukuyomi?"

"Yes, having just killed Uke Mochi," Kita confirms. "Hikaku wanted the same pattern as Niniji-sama had before he married."

That causes a sudden lull in conversation; considering what Ohabari-oba implied after the meeting with Tajima-sama, Kita can't admit to being surprised. It also makes it clear that whatever happened, these two _saw_ it.

"So, any ideas on _how_ I could make my chakra quieter?" Madara asks after the awkward pause has stretched for several seconds too many.

"Well, two ways," Kita admits; this is something she's thought about a lot, since different people are more or less expressive and it's not entirely dependent on chakra levels. "Firstly, you could make an effort to keep your chakra under your skin rather than flaring all over the place. Secondly, you could learn to separate your emotions from your chakra, so you don't project everywhere all the time."

"Those are two different things?"

"Well, yes? You could flare your chakra without projecting through it, probably; if you did that it would just feel like your affinity. But if you can separate your emotions from your chakra you can glare holes in the back of somebody's head without them realising you're doing it."

"Is that why _you_ learned?" Izuna asks, all solicitous interest.

"I leaned because once you can keep your feelings out of your chakra, you can deliberately imbue your chakra with a very specific feeling or intent," Kita explains, side-eyeing him warily, "which is a necessary part of my stitched seals. If I'm not completely focused when making them they fizzle out." Izuna feels like he's fishing for something.

Izuna looks even keener. "If I learned to do that, could I make seals out of wire?"

"Probably. I mean, _I've_ made seals out of wire." Mostly to see if it worked like thread. It's actually easier; Uchiha-made steel wire conducts chakra very well indeed.

Izuna looks gleeful. Madara mostly looks –and feels– confused. There is confusion billowing everywhere. "How do I do that?"

"Meditation helps?" Kita offered a little helplessly. "I mean, I mostly just _do_ it so I'm not sure how to teach it. Does the clan have stealth specialists? It sounds like something they should know how to do. I mean, it's not about ignoring your feelings; it's just about recognising that they are not necessarily relevant to what you are doing right now."

Madara still looks confused. Izuna is frowning like her words only partly make sense.

"Okay, say you go on a mission and people die," Kita attempts, "and then you come home feeling terrible about it. But it's not anybody else's fault that you feel terrible, so you pull the feeling under your skin so they can't see it. You help your fellow shinobi to the surgery, because that's the right thing to do. You offer to carry a sack of rice for a passing granny because it needs doing and she shouldn't be made to feel bad because you messed up. Then when you're in private with somebody you trust, you let all those _feelings_ out but keep your _chakra_ contained, because emotions are messy and that's fine, but putting chakra behind them makes them _invasive_ and that's not a good thing to do to people weaker than you are, who can't defend themselves from you."

The lights come on; both Madara and Izuna look like she has just kicked their whole world off-kilter. "Does keeping your own emotions _in_ make it easier to wall other people's _out_?" Izuna demands, actually looking at her properly for the first time. Kita feels vaguely exposed by that sharp gaze.

"Yes? I mean, once you get used to keeping yours in, you can _tell_ when it's somebody else's feelings being pushed in your face, so they're easier to disregard. It also gets easier to tell if people are being manipulative on purpose."

Izuna turns on his older brother. "We are _learning_ this," he says firmly.

Madara is projecting a mess of pained doubt, determination and the particular delight that comes from learning a new thing. "Meditation helps, you said?"

"Meditation is a tool for increasing your familiarity with your own chakra," Kita recites, quoting one of the scrolls that Kumami-san has made her copy dozens of times in an attempt to improve her right-handed calligraphy. It has only been marginally successful; Kita is not ambidextrous and doubts she ever will be. "Once you are familiar with your chakra, how it moves and circulates within you, how it responds to your moods and your will, you can mould it more effectively."

"This is how you got good at sealing, isn't it?" Izuna points out shrewdly. "You don't have much chakra, but you know it very well so you can do a lot more with it than most people who aren't shinobi."

"That _is_ part of it, yes."

Izuna's eyes take on a slightly wicked gleam. "Could we practice with you? Not all the time of course, but regularly? So you can demonstrate how it's supposed to be done and we can gauge our progress?"

He most _certainly_ has an ulterior motive but Kita can't quite pin it down. It's something more than an excuse to keep visiting, but beyond that she has no idea. "I see no reason why not, so long as my other duties aren't interrupted."

"I'll sort it out with Auntie," Izuna assures her sincerely, mischief still gleaming in his eyes. "Can you get us started now?"

This is a trap. However she has a feeling the trap is for Madara, not for her, which explains Izuna's mischief far better. Far be it from Kita to thwart good-natured sibling teasing. "Well, the best way to start is to sit comfortably in a position you can keep indefinitely without developing pins and needles."

Both boys settle cross-legged on the engawa.

"Rest your hands on your thighs or your knees, whichever is most comfortable, then close your eyes and focus on the feel of your chakra inside yourself."

They both settle. "What do we do once we've found it?" Izuna asks, eyes closed.

"Sink into the feeling. Does it move? If so, how? Is it steady or erratic? Where can you feel it most? It is in a specific area of your body? How does that feeling compare with other areas of your self?" Kita asks tone soft and steady as she glances out at the garden again; Hijiri and Hidaka are busily crawling through the muddy shrubbery, playing ninja. "Breathe slowly and explore the sense of your chakra."

Madara's billowing cloud almost immediately contracts around him, trailing edges lingering on her throat and hands as they retreat past her. He twitches, but settles again fairly swiftly. Izuna is actually detectable past his brother now, hot but fiercely contained like the fire in a forge rather than Madara's rampaging wildfire.

The contrast is oddly comfortable; Kita picks up her embroidery again, half-slipping into a similarly meditative state as she continues highlighting Tsukuyomi's slaughter of the goddess of food with silver accents, half an eye on the ongoing game in the garden.

It's a very pleasant way to finish off the morning.

* * *

The weather finally improves and missions start up with a vengeance; lots of merchants want their goods escorted to cities as quickly as possible despite the flooded roads, so they can sell their goods before anybody else and make a larger profit. Madara is sent on one such escort mission to Tanzaku-gai, along with four older members of the Outguard, while Izuna is on another to the fire temple.

Izuna's party is also taking along Uchiha trading goods, including a respectable quantity of pale green silk which no silkworms were killed to make. Silk that Kita has spun, from cocoons she raised herself. Izuna has been firmly instructed on what the silk is worth, what price to offer first and what lower limit to accept on the haggling. He had clearly found her seriousness adorable; Madara suspects Izuna will do his best to get a good deal for her, if only to lord it over Madara later.

Izuna is very interested in Kita, possibly because she seems to be developing a habit of surprising them both. First it was the sensing, then it was the fantastical and original bedtime stories provided for their younger cousins' amusement. Most recently their newly-developed meditation habit has started to bear fruit: people no longer tense or turn around when he walks up behind them. In fact several Outguard members have _jumped_ when he has spoken up from behind them.

It is amusing. It is also embarrassing that he never noticed this was an issue until Kita pointed it out. His cousins are far less wary of him now, as though his efforts to rein in his chakra are perceptible to them even though they are too young to really recognise what they were feeling.

Madara is also starting to notice other people's chakra at close range, probably because he is not hopelessly fouling up his own senses anymore. Izuna is bright and hot and contained; Kita is a much gentler glow, moving with steady purpose and radiating subtle warmth.

He can feel her chakra when they meditate together and it's almost like being curled up by the iori on a winter's evening, comfortable and soothingly soporific.

He accidentally fell asleep last time and started drooling. Izuna laughed at him.

He should buy Kita a present in Tanzaku-gai. She is calm and pleasant and not giggly or overly fearful, all of which he appreciates very much, but he wants her to like him as a person. As a friend, even. It is hard to talk about personal things when Izuna is always there poking her with words –which Kita handles very gracefully even when she is telling his nosy little brother to mind his own business– so maybe a gift would help?

What should he get though? What kinds of things does she like?

Well, sweets might work, but they've not talked about favourite foods yet and he doesn't want to assume. She likes doing embroidery –she's said as much– and she likes art, so maybe some prints if he can find some? Something legendary, or else of a play or story?

It is that or clothes; Kita is very careful of her everyday brown cotton kimono, but surreptitious glances with his sharingan active have revealed lines of wear that imply it is at least second-hand. Probably inherited from her mother or grandmother; kimono are frequently passed down families like that. He can't buy her a new kimono –that would have _implications_ and she is _twelve_ he is _not_ going to do that– but he could probably get away with an umbrella or a new set of obi cords. Something useful but not too personal, that says he is paying attention and wants her to like him. That he isn't taking her for granted despite his father having arranged the betrothal without asking either of them.

If all else fails, an omamori will at least say he's thought of her while away from the clan.

* * *

Kita wears kimono when embroidering, because the slow, delicate work of piecing patchwork and adding decorative details requires a lot of sitting indoors in good light and keeping the work clean. However gardening or helping in the fields is messier work, especially in this muddy late spring, so she changes into the everyday outdoor outfit of every member of the Uchiha clan –dark long-sleeved shirt with the clan crest embroidered on the back of the neck and matching ankle-length trousers– to weed Ohabari-oba's flowerbeds and help Hikaku clear the koi pond of winter debris, bandaging the trouser legs around her calves to keep warm and reduce the amount of laundry she will need to do afterwards. Fewer changes of water to soak the laundry in if the mud is only on the bandages; they can be rinsed separately in the river first.

Ohabari-oba does not have a vegetable garden at all; the only regularly harvested plants in her entire garden are the plum tree, the persimmon tree and the bamboo. Everything else is selected purely for aesthetic reasons.

Kita is utterly baffled that such a thing is even possible; Ohabari-oba doesn't even do the harvesting herself. At least several of the trees in the garden are oaks; she will be able to trim branches off them for her caterpillars, which are due to hatch soon. Now the weather is better Papa has moved the trays over and Ohabari-oba has let her clear and air out the loft for them.

Ohabari-oba's loft is very large, so only a quarter of it is needed for the covered caterpillar trays on their stepped stand. Kita is given another quarter to keep her dowry in, which so far consists of a loom, a reeling rack, a spindle and a chest containing the kimono Mama has given her that she is not allowed to wear yet, the pattern scrolls of patchwork coat lining designs and all the silk scraps and threads. The silk scraps take up much more room than the kimono do.

The remaining half of the loft contains things that belonged to Niniji-sama and his wife that Hikaku and his siblings will probably want to have and use later. Furniture, kimono which Kita knows she will be helping Ohabari-oba air out in the next week or two before carefully folding back into storage for another year, private correspondence, even a biwa. Stored separately are other things, possibly things that Ohabari-oba has inherited from hers and Tajima-sama's mother. Another smaller set of drawers containing carefully wrapped kimono, a lacquered wooden case containing a koto, and a chest filled with a range of other objects carefully wrapped in cloth and paper, making identification impossible.

Kita only knows about those things because after she cleaned the loft, Ohabari-oba had her bring the koto down, carefully setting it up in the room that used to be Niniji-sama's study.

"A lady should know how to play an instrument," Ohabari-oba tells her, "so I will be teaching you the koto."

Music lessons however do not begin immediately; Kita guesses this is because Ohabari-oba wants to refamiliarise herself with the instrument before demonstrating its use. It's nice, hearing the music drifting through the house as she cooks, cleans and finishes up the quilting on Hikaku's coat.

It's also nice to be in the garden feeding the koi to musical accompaniment.

Two weeks after the weather changes, while Madara and Izuna are both away on missions, Sannosawa-san visits to discuss sealing with her in more depth. Ohabari-oba turns hosting the clan's scholar into a teaching experience, so Kita sits at the table in her pale purple silk kimono and cream and gold obi, her hair piled up on the top of her head and held in place by borrowed pins as Ohabari-oba performs an informal tea ceremony.

While Tajima-sama was more interested in what her seals do and that they are reliable, Sannosawa-san is primarily interested in _how_ they work. Kita brings out all her notes, which is a little embarrassing when they are scribbled on mismatched paper scraps and offcuts, bits of bark and the occasional old roof tile. She should make a fair copy of everything on good paper now she has the time and means to do so.

More embarrassing is when Sannosawa-san starts asking what all the little notations mean.

"What does this scribble mean, Kita-chan?"

Kita squints at it. "I think that's the ideogram I came up with for the little things that cause infections, Sannosawa-san." It's her mental picture of a bacterium, a blobby oval with fine cilia sticking out, making it look a little like a deformed gear.

The middle-aged man blinks at her. "Firstly, the word you are looking for is 'germ,' Kita-chan. Secondly, what do you mean by a 'thought picture'?"

That isn't a word? She was sure it is a word. "Um, it's a symbol that represents an object or idea," she tries, a little wrong-footed by having to explain something she just _knows_. "Kind of like a kanji, but there wasn't a kanji so I made something up."

Sannosawa's face does something subtle but interesting, as does his chakra. "Firstly, there are in fact kanji for writing 'germ'," he informs her firmly. "Secondly, do you use many original symbols in your sealing?"

Kita thinks about it. The problem with kanji is that there is a separate symbol for every concept, rather than a small collection of phonetic symbols that can be assembled to form the word of your choice. It is also only possible to teach these symbols at a certain rate, and a teacher who thinks that your calligraphy is insufficiently legible can significantly hamper your progress in learning said symbols. She could have used hiragana, but in Japanese homophones are written identically and sealing is _not_ a discipline where it is safe to confuse meanings. "Probably; Kumami-sensei held me back in the advanced script lessons over my poor calligraphy, so I only know a few hundred of the less common kanji." It is compulsory for all Uchiha children to know the thousand common kanji, but no more than that; Kita stayed on out of choice, hoping to learn more, but has thus far been hobbled by her teacher's poor opinion of her calligraphy. She does have a wider vocabulary than she did two years ago, but not by as much as she could have.

The scholar frowns; so does Ohabari-oba. "I will take over your education there," Ohabari-oba says firmly. "There are a great many kanji and as wife of a Clan Head you will need to memorise them _all_ , as you are likely to be required to see and use them in correspondence, politics and poetry. You will also need them to read the clan's histories."

"Start with the histories," Sannosawa says firmly. "She can memorise them by rote, which will allow her to learn to recognise the individual kanji more swiftly. Calligraphy is less urgent, and can be fitted in around her other duties." He paused. "Madara-kun's calligraphy is very fine and his sharingan has placed him well ahead of his peers in memorising characters. I will inform Tajima-sama that I am assigning him to tutor Kita-chan for his schoolroom hours."

"That will work well," Ohabari-oba agrees. "Madara-kun can help Kita-chan become aware of the gaps in her understanding, as well as assist her in filling them in. It will also give them something to talk about."

So Ohabari-oba has noticed that it is Izuna who always carries the conversation whenever her older nephews visit. Well, this will at least give Kita time with her betrothed _without_ his younger brother intruding.

* * *

Madara was not expecting to be scheduled _calligraphy lessons_ the moment he was back from his mission, barely giving him enough time to visit the clan bath house and change clothes. That he is _giving_ the lessons only clears up part of his confusion; yes, he has taught Izuna most of the more complex kanji –mostly by writing them out so his little brother can copy them with his sharingan– but that doesn't make him a teacher.

That his kōhai is Kita only adds to his questions. Thankfully his betrothed has the answers; he has been tasked with helping Ohabari-oba get her up to speed on vocabulary and kanji. Seeing as Madara used his sharingan in every single script lesson he had after activating it and swiftly completed all of Sannosawa-sensei's available material in a manner the sensei described as 'competent but uncreative,' he can't really say he's surprised that he's being expected to help. He has more free time than most people, being his father's heir.

It also provides the perfect opportunity to give Kita his present, which he has been worrying about all the way back from Tanzaku-gai. He has been consoling himself that even if it doesn't go down well, the furoshiki is fancy enough to count as a gift all by itself –it's a cotton and silk blend painted with a vibrant asymmetric pattern of koi and ripples and floating leaves– but he really _wants_ her to like his present. It felt like a good idea at the time, despite how much he's been second-guessing himself all the way home.

The rest of the squad teasing him didn't help.

"I bought you a gift," he blurts out as she opens the shōji to the room that used to be his uncle's study.

"Thank you, Madara-kun," she says reflexively, eyes dropping to his hands, which are empty.

"It's in my bag," he adds, waving at the canvas sack slung over his shoulder, which has his calligraphy set and the old, worn dictionary of kanji that is one of the few actual books handed down from Outguard Head to Outguard Head in it as well, along with a book of haiku than had been his mother's. It is more fun to practice calligraphy with poetry than just endlessly copying out single characters.

"Do I make tea?" Kita asks abruptly, suddenly looking as awkward as he feels. The reminder that she doesn't really know what to do about their situation stiffens his spine; he is fifteen and knows what is expected of them both, so he is responsible for helping her learn what she needs to know.

"No: I am here to teach you, so your mind should be on the lesson, not on hosting me. Ohabari-oba will bring tea, because she _is_ hosting me and arranged for me to teach you."

Kita nods, visibly relieved to have clear instructions. Madara gently herds her into the room, closes the shōji behind them and sets his bag on the floor by the table. "Sit on my left," he tells her; "I'm going to show you the kanji and then you're going to write them out." He has waxed boards for her to practice on, easily wiped clean, so they do not waste paper. If he uses chakra to recover the ink he can even reuse that too.

He starts by having Kita go through the book telling him what she recognises and having her write random ones to prove it. Seeing how the kanji are shaped by a person holding the brush in their left hand is fascinating –he uses his sharingan while she's not looking, so he can replicate it if necessary on a mission– and the characters are well-formed and recognisable, if a little idiosyncratic. Not that there's anything wrong with having a visible style.

She knows the basic thousand plus another two hundred and sixteen, as well as about fifty additional characters relevant to fabric, dyeing, embroidery and the Shinto pantheon; not surprising considering her training and that a lot of clansmen have homages to their lineage printed in their coat lining. It's a solid foundation for a twelve-year-old; yes, she could be further ahead, but she is not _behind_.

Teaching her is slower than teaching Izuna was; she has no sharingan, so he has to coach her through the brush strokes several times, and being a girl she knows hiragana not katakana so he has to read her each character's definition so she understands what it means. She's very focused though, reciting his instructions under her breath to herself as she writes and obediently coming up with short sentences involving each new character, so she can fix its meaning in her mind along with its shape.

Ohabari-oba brings tea while Kita is using the four new kanji he has taught her in haiku describing them. She has a surprisingly quick mind for counting the syllables, although her creations are not particularly elegant.

They _are_ amusing though. He has her write them down on paper at the end of the session along with the definitions, to help the lesson to stick and to preserve the poetry for posterity. Describing a loom as having jaws is a novel mental image, as is a tea bowl being menacing or describing a muddy puddle as a lagoon for a spider to sail across.

Still, he _is_ looking forward to the next lesson: the next eight kanji all have _exactly_ the same pronunciation and it's going to be very funny.

"Here," he says after she has documented her ditties and carefully set the paper aside to dry. "Your present." He sets it on the table, then busies himself with his lukewarm tea.

Kita carefully wipes her hands and her side of the table so they are clean of stray ink splashes before sliding the parcel towards her, face softening into amazed delight as she takes in the patterned furoshiki.

Madara slides a little chakra into his eyes to preserve her expression in his memory forever.

It takes her moments to untie the knots, revealing the pair of indigo house slippers with a cheery print that he'd originally thought was baby turtles in water but the salesperson had told him was little spools with trailing threads.

"I thought you'd like your own pair rather than using one of Auntie's guest pairs," Madara said hurriedly into the sudden hush. "They're printed with little spools, so I thought you'd like them?" _Does_ she like them?!

Kita looks up at him, eyes shining with tears. "I love them," she says a little hoarsely, then leans over and hugs him tightly around the ribcage.

Madara experiences an instant of blind panic, then remembers Izuna's various instances of being utterly overwhelmed by random emotions when he was younger and hugs back. This isn't like all those courtship horror stories he's overheard various older cousins exchanging; Kita is only twelve, not twenty or even sixteen, so she's still a child in body and heart –if perhaps not in mind considering she's a self-taught sealing master– and children need to be hugged.

It's just, _he_ is not usually the person being approached for hugs unless the child needing hugs is Izuna, and Izuna has recently started insisting he's too old to be fussed over like that.

"I love them," she repeats, voice muffled by his shirt. "Thank you so much, Madara-kun."

Madara is abruptly reminded that Kita has only been living with Ohabari-oba for a little over a month and probably misses living at home. She has five younger siblings –living younger siblings– and Madara can't imagine living in a separate building to his little brother and not being on hand whenever Izuna needs something. Her parents' house is barely a ten minute walk away but she's very clearly homesick all the same.

Having her own pair of house slippers will make this house more like a home for her. He's helping her feel more at home, helping her be more comfortable with the changes his father has imposed on her.

He's been over-thinking things, hasn't he? Kita's just a child and children want to know they _matter_ to the people who are responsible for them. Madara can do that.

He hugs her a little tighter and leans his face against the top of her head. "You are very welcome, Kita-chan," he assures her. "I _want_ you to be part of my family." She has always been part of his clan, but clan is not quite the same as family.

That sets off more shaking and sobbing, but that's okay. He's honestly surprised she's managed to keep it all inside for this long; the Uchiha clan is infamous for fiery tempers and strong emotional reactions. Any other clan child would have done this _weeks_ ago.

More proof that she's more intelligent than average. He's going to have to keep an eye out for this, isn't he? He doesn't want her hiding her feelings and making herself unhappy when it might be something he can fix for her. They're betrothed, he's _supposed_ to be looking after her. How will he ever manage to lead the Outguard if he can't even care for one girl?

He needs to get to know her better. At least the calligraphy lessons will give him an excuse to do so without Izuna interrupting all the time.


	3. Chapter 3

Kita slowly settles into a new routine, which manages to be a mix of the comfortably familiar and the confusingly alien. Every morning she checks on her freshly-hatched caterpillars –familiar– and cuts extra branches for them if necessary, then washes and goes to help with breakfast. Breakfast is both familiar and unfamiliar: she has been helping Mama with the cooking for years, but what Hikaku and his younger siblings eat is not the same as Kita is used to eating. They have dried fish flakes for breakfast, along with the usual rice, miso and pickles, rather than nattō. Kita has to admit that dried fish tastes better than nattō, but it still takes getting used to.

After breakfast comes housework and training, the former familiar and the latter not. As the prospective bride of the Head of Outguard she is a target for Senju reprisals –and a target for other people too, but only the Senju are specifically mentioned– so needs to be capable of defending both herself and any future children. Her wire-handling skills are deemed sufficient –Papa taught her how because the test of good wire is smooth handling– but her knife skills are apparently not enough on their own despite being called 'good', so on alternate days she has naginata lessons. When not spending her mornings being drilled in stances and sweeps until her arms burn, there is laundry and dusting and sweeping to be done, along with gardening and food preparation. She does not have to mend tatami or shōji –Ohabari-oba pays somebody else to carry out domestic repairs– but that's not much of a respite.

Lunch is a quiet meal, because all the boys are given bento at breakfast so they don't have to come home in between their own lessons in the schoolroom and on the training field. Ohabari-oba generally uses the occasion to either discuss Homeguard matters over a simple meal, or to teach Kita how to lay out dishes for specific festivals and occasions, which involves a lot of very beautiful and variously-shaped chinaware. Learning to actually cook the dishes will be put off until the various events arise; the clan can't afford to waste food. The Uchiha might be a noble clan, but it's not so wealthy as to be able to afford out-of-season extravagances.

After lunch come the more mentally taxing lessons. Madara teaches her new kanji and corrects her calligraphy about twice a week, but the actual timing is fluid as he regularly takes missions and leads patrols: there can be anything from two days to an entire week between lessons. If he's not available Ohabari-oba allows her an hour to practice independently, playing the koto in the study with her and critiquing her efforts. She is required to write each kanji on paper at least once a day, and all her efforts are then presented to Madara at the next lesson so he can gauge her improvement.

Kita has only recently been let off from writing the first ten kanji he taught her; she has thirty-five she is currently working on and it is very challenging indeed to not muddle them up in either meaning or order of brushstrokes. A good half of the difficulty comes from switching to using her left hand, although she has always done that at home anyway and can _only_ write some kanji with her left hand. She still lacks the muscle memory in her left hand for about half the common kanji, but the ones she has used in her sealing are more practiced.

If Madara is teaching her, the lesson lasts until mid-afternoon; if he is not Kita has koto practice until that same time. Ohabari-oba gives her an actual lesson once weekly, but on all the other days Kita is expected to go over what she has learned until it becomes automatic, fluent and above all else tuneful.

Kita likes the koto and likes music, but she does not like practicing. Scales are not interesting and it is incredibly hard to move the bridges to exactly the right place on a first try. She is getting better, but her progress is a frustratingly snail-like crawl.

On days when Madara does teach her, koto practice takes place after the lesson. She cannot escape koto practice. She is doomed to sore fingers and frustration.

After koto practice Kita either has clan history to memorise, examples of Homeguard disputes to study and then discuss with Ohabari-oba or tea ceremony practice. Tea ceremony practice is her least favourite; every movement has to be perfect, like a long, slow and incredibly intricate dance, and Kita is not graceful. She is in the midst of the growth spurt, she has never had dancing lessons and she tends to bang her elbows on things. The only positive thing Ohabari-oba has to say about her efforts is that she has good sleeve etiquette and proper posture. She will improve the more she practices, but repetition does not nurture enjoyment.

Then there is dinner to make and serve to ravenous little boys, dishes to wash while Ohabari-oba has little boys to wash, the supervision of small clean full boys until their bedtime –which frequently involves them wanting her to do things _with_ them– and then an hour or so of freedom until her own bedtime.

Those evening hours are when Ohabari-oba has most of her social guests, as opposed to the guests visiting on clan business who stop by in the afternoons while Kita is practicing koto or studying. There are probably occasional morning guests too, but Kita is usually out of the house in the mornings so doesn't see them. Sometimes she is expected to sit in on the evening socialising, but mostly she is granted free time.

As the evenings are bright enough now that she doesn't need a lantern to see by, Kita spends her precious free time re-reading and softly reciting the clan history she is supposed to memorise, playing around with seal ideas and thinking up designs for new coat patterns, aided by Madara lending her his mother's copy of the creation myth and various other illustrated mythic texts, including a print book of the Takamagahara. Half of which he hadn't actually been able to _read_ , because they were written in hiragana and he'd never been taught them; hiragana are women's script and his father hadn't seen the need. Kita had instantly walked him through the syllabary, then read him the first page out loud so he could take in how the script worked.

He'd still let her keep the stories though; he'd quickly leafed through them with his sharingan active, recited a random page to her to prove he knew it now and then dashed off for the mission he was going to be late for after staying so long. Kita finds it a bit unfair how blatantly the sharingan lets a person cheat; Madara had probably learned all his kanji inside a week after finding out it let him do that. She obviously _can't_ do that, so has to chip away at them the hard way like everybody else without the sharingan does.

If he isn't dashing off on missions, the evenings are generally when Madara comes over to spend time with her. To begin with Izuna came too, but as the weeks pass he seems to lose interest and stops. Kita thinks he's decided she's boring until Madara gleefully reveals that his little brother has a crush. She immediately resigns herself to Izuna's eventual return, either to ramble adoringly or to mope and wail because the girl in question isn't interested.

Neither happens. Izuna proves shockingly well-adjusted in matters of romantic relationships, spends the months over the height of summer dallying with one of the Uchiha clan's many girls called Naka –Kōjin lineage apparently– then somehow ends the relationship with no hard feelings on either side around the time that Kita is spending all her time drying and reeling her silk cocoons, supervising the breeding and freeing of her moths, boiling those cocoons separately from the lower-quality cocoons –of which there are fewer this time– and setting up the spindle so she can spend the next few months making green-gold thread in every available moment.

Madara is as baffled by Izuna's romantic success as she is. However the respite from the fourteen-year-old's interference is very welcome: it gives her time to talk about more personal things with Madara and for him to decide to share similarly personal things with her, including how he wants peace so the clan can prosper.

* * *

Madara's mother died when he was nine, so he doesn't remember her very well. Partly due to it being before he got his sharingan, but mostly because his father had taken over his education when he was four and his not having spent much time with her after that. Izuna remembers her better despite being fourteen months younger, as Father hadn't taken much of an interest in his second son until after his wife's death.

Izuna often comments on Madara having their mother's looks, which Ohabari-oba confirmed once. Father has said a few times that Madara has his mother's soft heart, generally while disparaging him over some tactical choice which he disapproves of.

He doesn't see much of his mother's family; they're the branch of the Uchiha who do most of the trading missions, pretending to be regular civilians and selling Uchiha white charcoal, pine charcoal, inksticks and other goods across Fire country and various neighbouring nations, then using the money to buy salt, dried fish, iron sand, various other necessities and a smattering of luxuries. Most of them don't have a known lineage, but they're possibly the clan members with the most personal wealth and are certainly the most well-travelled; some of them go on trading ventures that last most of a year. A number of his variously distant maternal cousins are in the Outguard and most of them have extremely respectable chakra reserves. Those not in the Outguard generally don't develop the sharingan though, as being mostly traders limits their combat experience to training and the occasional bandit ambush, which is not really the kind of environment conducive to activating the clan's bloodline.

Madara knows he has far more chakra than his father, even at fifteen, and that he has his mother's blood to thank there. He does look a bit like his cousins on that side too: they're all more solidly built than Father is, with broader shoulders and thicker waists. They also tend to be loudly sociable, which Madara most certainly is _not_ ; clearly that's something Izuna inherited instead.

Kita's not anywhere near as sociable as Izuna is, but she's not as reclusive as Madara either. Not that he doesn't like company, but he's discovered since learning to rein in his chakra that there is such a thing as too _much_ company. Kita however doesn't mind small children and is happy to be in the general vicinity of a conversation, even if it doesn't actually include her.

She's a good listener and really interested in learning new things; not just practical things, but absolutely anything. She wants to know about places he's been on missions, people he's met, stories he's heard and is even happy to listen to him talk about training and patrols. She also asks questions about all those things, sometimes to fish for more details but other times just to get his opinion, which he then has to explain with other details.

Kita never dismisses his opinions or thoughts as naïve or unrealistic, but she doesn't agree with him just because he's going to be the next Head of the Outguard either. She listens, she counter-argues, she expects him to defend his position and she will acknowledge the merits and benefits of his perspective that she can see before poking holes in it. He's not been able to talk to _anybody_ like this since that brief summer he spent meeting Hashirama down by the river and he's _missed_ it.

Madara finds himself speaking about his dream for peace and is utterly delighted when she actually _agrees_ with him and then backs up her agreement with various practical points about how the Uchiha clan runs to support peace. War is expensive, she says, then points to all the ways it costs the clan –in iron and steel and fabric and labour and lives– and talks about what it's like to live on clan grounds when the entire Outguard is away, how less gets done and everything takes longer because farmers and craftspeople are doing double duty patrolling the borders and the constant low-level strain that comes from knowing that if another clan were to attack them now, they would be extremely vulnerable.

He's never had the domestic perspective on the costs of war spelled out like that before. He knows war is terrible for what it does to the people fighting it; he's not really considered that it costs the rest of the clan just as much.

Her perspective on peace is different too; she describes war as 'an imposition' to contrast peace as 'a collaboration.' Her explanation makes sense too: war is incited by a minority, who –by attacking the ones they have decided to be offended by– force everybody else to take sides and take up arms, either to defend themselves or to support their allies. Peace on the other hand is enacted by the majority, who all work together to maintain it and resolve disputes between individuals before warfare can develop.

"I think waging war is a sign of failure," she tells him quietly one hot summer evening after Tanabata while spinning silk on the engawa, her eyes never leaving the fine green-gold thread being extracted from the fuzzy mass on the spindle. "A sign that you have been utterly unable to come to an agreement by other means, so are resorting to hitting the other party over the head until they give in. Declaring war on somebody says you are unwilling to collaborate or compromise, and not wanting to work with somebody is often a sign of greed or some other major flaw. What was that war between the Fire and Tea daimyos about?"

"Money," Madara says sourly; she's right. It's uncomfortable, but she _is_ right. Why are the Uchiha even fighting the Senju these days? Revenge for everybody the other clan has killed? Well, the Uchiha have killed just as many and chasing that revenge is just leading to _more_ people dying, so who exactly _is_ responsible for those deaths again?

"Fighting _is_ easy though," Kita muses. "We're on our side, everybody else is the enemy and because they're the enemy they're _wrong_ and we're _right_. Peace is hard because you have to consider all the perspectives and recognise that maybe _you_ were wrong. Homeguard stuff is hard because everybody's Uchiha and everybody thinks they're right, but in an argument with five sides obviously they can't _all_ be right."

Madara winces; he is _so glad_ nobody is expecting him to be Head of Homeguard. It sounds like a nightmare. One that he is well aware he does not have the patience or the diplomatic skills for. Leading the Outguard is much more straightforward.

"The problem is that while in those cases everybody is generally wrong about _something_ , they all also have things they're _not_ wrong about and there is so much negotiating and flattering and reasoning with people you have to do until they all realise that the proposed solution is going to benefit them somehow. That the hard part of peace, I think: ensuring absolutely everybody has a stake in it, because if everybody _knows_ they're going to benefit then they're all willing to help make it happen."

That seems far more practical and reasonable than Hashirama's assumption that they can just _decide_ they want peace and make everybody else go along with it. Madara already knows that will never work; he can't just _make_ the whole clan do what he wants. "So how do we get the clan to _want_ peace?"

Kita frowns thoughtfully, busy hands pulling incredibly fine thread from the fluff on the spindle. "Well, first we have to get them to _see_ that the clan is better off overall in the years when we don't clash with the Senju as much. Also appealing to people's pride over how the only reason we fight the Senju so much is that greedy civilians take advantage of the rift between our clans to hire one of us because some economic rival has hired the other clan. I mean, if that happened with a clan we _weren't_ deadly enemies with, the warriors sent to fight would at least _try_ to avoid conflict with the other party, doing the minimum for defence until the end of the mission then go home. Or, if we were hired to take something, wait until the hired shinobi were busy or had left. But it's the Senju, so we charge in and people die and the clients benefit." She pauses. "At least, that's what the stories I've heard from Outguard members imply."

"No, you're right," Madara agrees quickly. "Clients _do_ take advantage and squads whose missions come into conflict with other clans _do_ try to avoid fighting them if possible." Unless those 'other clans' were Senju allies of course; things were less predictable then. "I mean, I've been on missions where a client's rival has hired Aburame and the mission leader decided the best course of action was to discreetly meet the Aburame team leader in a tea house, discuss objectives and mission requirements and compromise in such a way that respective contracts are kept to the letter if perhaps not in spirit. Or compensation was offered to the team whose mission objective was going to be compromised, because we don't want to fight them and they don't want to fight us either."

Of course that doesn't always happen and it _never_ happens on missions his father leads, but his father never goes on routine caravan guarding or small-time acquisition missions anyway. As his father's heir Madara needs the experience of what happens on such missions because he will eventually be the person assigning them, but once he is Outguard Head he won't have the time to run them himself anymore.

"If only we could negotiate with the Senju like that," Kita sighs. "Then again, if we had peace, what would _you_ do? I mean, if we get a real lasting peace, acting as a military force for hire isn't something that's going to bring in money anymore, is it?"

Madara has _not_ thought about that. Peace –true peace– would leave him without an income or anything to do beyond falconry and sparring. "Um…"

Kita smiles at him tentatively. "Chakra techniques have non-violent uses too; maybe between missions you could wander around the clan, see what people who aren't full-time shinobi do with their chakra? I think you'd be surprised."

"I will," he assures her quickly, reaching over to ruffle her hair. "Thanks, Kita-chan." She supports his dreams for peace and that's possibly the best thing about getting to know her.

* * *

Shortly after Obon Kita notices that one of Ohabari-oba's regular visitors is not, in fact, visiting to discuss clan matters. Tsuyoshi-san, one of the senior Outguard members –whose name she only knows because Izuna insisted on dragging all Tajima-sama's main lieutenants over and introducing her to them as 'my brother's betrothed'– is visiting Ohabari-oba twice a week –sometimes more– because he is courting her. Kita's not sure if she's surprised she missed it until now or if she's surprised Ohabari-oba is being courted at all; a little reflection reveals the latter and she is disappointed in herself. Ohabari-oba can't be much older than thirty, which isn't so old _really_. She could still have several children if she wanted to. Mama is probably older than Ohabari-oba and she doesn't think _Mama_ is old.

Armed with this information, Kita makes more of an effort to eavesdrop. It being autumn means her caterpillars don't need feeding –because the new batch are still in their eggs and won't hatch until April– and the garden doesn't need weeding either, so she has more time. Time she is currently using all of to spin in.

However there's no reason she can't spin just out of sight of the open study shōji, on the engawa where she can enjoy the sunshine and see the koi pond. Ohabari-oba's koto playing is always lovely to listen to after all.

Izuna got a high price for her peace silk last spring and Kita has plans for that money, but this year she is weaving herself an obi from the cocoons of the moths that hatched. She is not going to even try to dye any of it, preserving its pale green colouring, and when it is all spun she is going to ask Grandma about a simple obi weave. Then once the obi is completed she will decide if she wants to keep it plain or embroider it.

She _will_ probably end up embroidering it, but she doesn't want to get ahead of herself. First spinning her silk, then weaving it; thinking about the embroidery now would be putting the cart before the horse.

Kita has plenty of spinning left to do, so has plenty of time to eavesdrop in. Not that it's a particularly interesting conversation; music and theatre, mainly, and Kita has never seen any plays. Or even read about any plays, to be honest. Not here at least. She's heard a bit of music –there are various Uchiha who play instruments and festivals are always loud and cheerful– but she doesn't know composers or civilian performers like Tsuyoshi or Ohabari-oba clearly do.

Love matches are the usual way Uchiha –and, as she is learning in her new lessons, most of the other ninja clans– go about getting married. Arranged matches like Kita now has are the exception, and are usually only set up for political reasons; as a result they disproportionally affect the immediate family of a Clan Head. Tajima-sama arranging his son's match is therefore not _too_ unusual.

Non-Uchiha arranged marriages however do _not_ have a clause for when one or other party falls in love with somebody else. That is an exclusively Uchiha attitude, because the sharingan bloodline goes hand in hand with stronger emotional responses and a degree of difficulty in overcoming them. Uchiha are fiercely emotional in ways that civilian culture apparently frowns upon; samurai literature condems falling in love at _all_ to be a sign of weak-mindedness.

The Uchiha clan however knows that their hearts are their strength, so they make allowances for it. Other ninja clans make allowances for love matches for more pragmatic reasons: it's exponentially harder to marry off an unwilling ninja than an unwilling civilian. Civilian lovers who are set up for arranged marriages with people not of their choosing frequently commit suicide; well, perhaps not _frequently_ , but certainly often enough for it to be a popular literary trope. Ninja betrothed against their will –or whose civilian lovers are betrothed to third parties– are more likely to decide that murder will be effective in solving their problems.

It doesn't happen so much nowadays, as word has got around. Even a civilian clan-member's request to their lover's parents is likely to be accepted in light of murderous relatives potentially lurking in the wings.

The peasant class don't do arranged marriages –too much effort for not enough payoff when a love match between willing parties improves collaboration in a subsistence context– but the merchant class do it almost exclusively. As a result, a surprisingly large proportion of middle-class civilian women –and the occasional young man– are open to shinobi courtship despite the associated risks from rival clans.

Her own great-grandparents are proof of that.

Kita can see why though: it is better than having no choice at all. She has no objections to eventually marrying Madara –he is kind to her and he is focused on the welfare of his clan as his life's primary goal– but it is comforting to know that, if she ever _does_ fall in love, she will be free to pursue her heart.

* * *

By the Chrysanthemum Festival in September the Uchiha already have mission offers for the following spring, to burn the half rice fields of specific landowners within the Land of Fire who had taken advantage of the terrible weather much of the country suffered in the first half of this year by conspiring together to drive up prices. There are also contracts to attack and burn the caravans of certain tea merchants, no doubt to reduce competition and again drive up prices.

Madara knows the clan will definitely take the field-burning missions –easy money– and also that the greedy landowners in question will doubtless be hiring the Senju to protect their fields after losing the first crop. This is probably going to turn into yet another year-long war.

The tea issue is more problematic, but after talking to Kita he tentatively suggests to his father than they steal the tea rather than burning it and then sell it themselves; that will fulfil the contracts to the letter, bring in additional income for the clan and ensure the price of tea does not get driven up long term.

Moving the tea will be tricky, but Kita promises she can make a heavy goods seal that will allow the Outguard to swiftly move and carry all that tea without it being obvious. She comes through on her promise a week into autumn, following a fortnight of testing supervised by Yamasachi-san and Sannosawa-sensei.

It's a rather odd setup: the seal is stitched into the bottom of a shallow, very wide-based drawstring canvas bag and is little more than a thick outline surrounding a picture of a furled umbrella with the handle shaped like a parrot's head. It works by contact: the user first activates the seal with a touch of chakra, then shoves everything into the bag –the seal makes no distinction; so long as one end of an object can be slid into the bag it will vanish into the seal– and 'closes' the seal with another application of chakra. Once the seal is closed, other things can be placed in the bag to hide the seal.

Taking things out is more challenging; you have to have a firm picture of what you want as you add chakra to the seal, or else everything will simply come out in reverse order. Father however does not consider this a flaw –with sacks of tea it doesn't really matter– and Madara suspects these bags will soon see usage for both smuggling and storage. Dried foodstuffs in seals don't degrade and weapons don't rust, so clan outposts will probably want sets of these, appropriately labelled of course.

The bags can be worn slung across the back and although having the opening on the long side is a bit awkward, they're just the right size for storing a rolled-up overcoat or a few changes of clothes. With his father's approval, Kita spends the whole of the next month stitching seals into canvas bags made to her design by other members of the clan, all dyed indigo so as not to stand out against Outguard members' coats. Every single warrior gets one, although this massively depletes the clan's fabric stores; being able to carry or loot extra food or weapons without being weighed down by them is an advantage they can't afford to pass by.

His father orders a greater proportion of the coming year's harvest be dedicated to hemp to compensate for the reduced stock of canvas. Seeing as the Outguard will be entirely absent for most of spring and summer and with the new seal bags enabling more efficient storage, the clan will hopefully not go short of food to enable this; they will probably grow more buckwheat in the late summer after the hemp has been harvested, which will mean eating more soba and less soy or adzuki the year after.

With another long military season on the horizon, Ohabari-oba and Tsuyoshi declare their intent to marry. This makes for all kinds of upsets: Ohabari-oba will be moving into her husband's house so will no longer be able to care for Hikaku, Hijiri, Hidaka and Benten, but more significantly will no longer be able to organise the upkeep of the clan hall as was her duty as only living close female relative of the Outguard Head.

Father decides that both these tasks are now Kita's problem, increases the allowance she has access to accordingly so she can hire on lower-ranking clan members to see to the cleaning, cooking and upkeep of the gardens, and leaves the fine details to the women to sort out. Ohabari-oba rises to the occasion admirably and Kita's grandmother also gets involved; by the first day of winter everything seems to have settled down again, with the main task at hand being wedding preparations. The date has been set for the fifth of January, but Madara's primary concern right now is Kita's birthday.

She's going to be thirteen in a little over a week. It's not a significant age, but he wants to give her something special regardless. He's just not sure what.

Unexpectedly, the person who comes to his rescue is his father. Madara is dragged out on a very cold and snowy cross-country run to Kōgei-gai, marched through a range of artisan establishments and eventually settles on a glazed teapot with a bamboo handle over the top and a pair of yunomi.

The yunomi make him blush a bit, because a matched pair like this, identically patterned but one slightly bigger than the other, are called 'married couple teacups.' Teapots and yunomi are for brewing and drinking tea every day, rather than the elegant chawan which are only for tea ceremonies, and giving Kita a set like this is implying that one day they will live in the same house and drink tea together every day, just the two of them.

Not entirely accurate –Izuna will be living with them too, unless he marries first and moves out– but the sentiment stands.

His father seems approving of his choices and they move on to collect several different items from a range of other shops, all evidently ordered in advance as he only opens each parcel long enough to give its contents a cursory examination with his sharingan before paying. After each shop they discreetly slide the purchases into their new umbrella bags, then once everything is done and they have eaten they run back to clan grounds in the early dark.

On the way back Madara finds himself wondering what Kita is going to give him for his birthday after the winter solstice. He's going to be sixteen –which is significant as he will be old enough to lead missions– and with how busy the past few months have been, he's not sure when she would have had the time to buy or make him anything.

It doesn't really matter –she doesn't _need_ to get him anything– but he's still hopeful.

More importantly, now he knows what to do and where to go for future gifts, which he's very grateful for. When Kita's a bit older he'll ask his father about commissions and who the clan patronises for those; he can't always just buy things off the shelf, not when he's going to succeed his father as Outguard Head. Leading a noble clan like the Uchiha means setting an example, not just following other people's lead.

* * *

Kita has certainly _seen_ clan weddings before, but Ohabari-oba's is the first one she will be attending as a guest rather than just a spectator. She therefore has to embroider the clan crest over the back seam of her beautiful wisteria kimono with cream silk, so it will be appropriately formal for the occasion.

She doesn't have much time, not now she's responsible for the upkeep of both the house she lives in –now Hikaku's house rather than Ohabari-oba's– and the clan hall where Tajima-sama lives with Madara and Izuna. Most of the work is organisational and financial –keeping the kitchen stocked, doing the laundry, sending appropriate people over to cook, clean and carry out necessary maintenance and then paying them– but it's still a lot. Ohabari-oba will continue tutoring her on Homeguard things for another few years, but Kita will have to visit the older woman for that now and that will make things more challenging.

Actually, she will probably have to invite Ohabari-oba over to visit _her_ , because all the necessary records will be staying where they are. As will the formal tea service and other accessories; Ohabari-oba is marrying a man of no known lineage, so she is not leaving the Amaterasu lineage entirely –although her children will not be able to claim it– but she will still be dependent on her husband's income rather than her brother's despite Tajima-sama likely providing her with a generous dowry. Tsuyoshi-san has spent the past few months carrying out significant renovations to his new house, so it will be more suitable to his bride's station, but it is still not quite as grand as Hikaku's, where the front hall opens into a formal reception room rather than directly into the main living room with the iori. The only other house with a formal reception room is the clan hall. Kita suspects that Hikaku's house is technically _supposed_ to belong to the Homeguard Head, but under Tajima-sama it has become simply a cadet Amaterasu lineage property.

Kita has not managed to get _any_ weaving done yet this autumn; first the seal, now Ohabari-oba's marriage and the associated changes. She has at least managed to get Madara's birthday present finished though, which is something. She's made him hilt-wrapping tape and a hanging cord to tie his sword to his belt with, both out of her reeled wild silk; they are braided rather than woven and more easily hidden when guests suddenly visit while she is working. She partially disguised her intentions there by making herself new obi cords as well, which she will be wearing for the wedding in February.

She isn't quite thirteen and she has _so much_ to do. She's technically responsible for two households, still has lots of Mary Poppins bags to make for the Homeguard –Outguard orders came first due to the upcoming conflict but the Homeguard needs them just as much, if not more– is basically raising two-year-old Benten, Ohabari-oba has increased the frequency of cooking lessons in light of her imminent departure from the house and Kita also has a bunch of patchwork coats belonging to clan elders to freshen up and repair in time for the wedding.

Her calligraphy lessons with Madara are positively restful in comparison.

She is so busy she completely forgets it's her birthday until Hidaka presents her with a set of lacquered hair combs after breakfast, his two older brothers looking on with barely-concealed nerves.

"Thank you very much," she says automatically to hide the pang in her heart at not being at home with her family today, then looks more closely at her gift. "Oh, there's one for every season, how lovely!" Orchid and peony for spring, lotus and water iris for summer, chrysanthemum and dianthus for autumn and plum, pine and bamboo for winter.

"The winter one is the prettiest!" Hidaka says eagerly, bouncing on his toes. "Like you, Kita-nee!"

"Well I am a winter's child, aren't I Hidaka-kun?" Kita replies, opening her arms so he can dash in for a hug. "Thank you again for my beautiful present, Hikaku-kun, Hijiri-kun; I will be sure to wear them often." It is evident that quite a lot of pocket money has been spent on these, or else that they have raided their mother's jewellery box. She hopes it is the former; Benten deserves to inherit her mother's treasures.

The day continues according to her usual routine, but with gifts appearing at odd interludes. Izuna briefly crashes her naginata training session to give her a new uchiwa fan frame and a set of three different prints to mount on it, Papa visits at lunchtime with Tateshina, Naka and Midori to present her with a new woven basket loaded with useful gifts, including two new nagajuban printed in colours that compliment her kimonos and a wealth of dyed and metal-wrapped silk threads. Her little sisters go home again immediately afterwards, but Papa stays on.

"It's for you to use on _your_ clothing, north-star," Papa tells her firmly as they eat their bento together, "not for coats, unless it's your own coat. Embroider an obi, add detailing to a printed kimono or buy a new plain one and do all the work yourself; wear your beauty on the outside as well as on the inside."

"Yes, Papa. I promise." Grandma has included meticulously detailed instructions for weaving a plain obi, a few notes on how to weave a two-tone reversible obi and two simple damask charts, one for checks and one for a Bishamon tortoiseshell lattice, as well as orders to invite her to visit when she decides to start the plain obi, so she can ensure Kita doesn't accidentally set the loom up wrong.

"Your grandma's joints are aching today, so she couldn't come herself," Papa adds quietly, wiping his mouth after finishing his food. "We've done very well out of the new field; your aunt Tsuyu has promised to supply you with paper at reduced cost in exchange for a share of the hemp and we planted buckwheat as a second crop."

"Thank you Papa." He and Mama could have kept that paper for themselves or sold it, but they've given it –or part of it anyway– to her, for her calligraphy practice and seals and patterns. "Once Madara-sama says my calligraphy is good enough I'll make a wall scroll for her."

"She will like that," Papa says warmly, bending down –not as far as he used to, she is definitely growing– to kiss her hair. "Take care of yourself, Kita."

Her progress in kanji is currently at a crawl –she has so little time to practice in and her current fifteen are _intensely_ complicated– but Madara still visits twice a week despite only having taught her two new characters in all of the past month. The more complicated characters have accumulated despite originally having been taught over several weeks, the simpler ones they were interspersed with having been set aside as fluent.

Today he gives her a birthday present before starting. It is a teapot of her very own and a pair of husband-and-wife teacups. Kita loves them, not just for the implication of commitment –one day they will have their own home and drink tea together in it– but because with Ohabari-oba marrying she will have to host her lessons herself, or else visit Madara at the clan hall. If she hosts here she doesn't want to use the teacups that belonged to Hikaku's parents, and using guest teacups wouldn't be appropriate either. Now however she has her own cups to drink tea with Madara from and her own pot to serve with.

She makes tea in them immediately, much to Madara's bashful delight. Not that it prompts him to go any easier on her as she attempts to form the kanji for 'foothold,' 'fear,' 'threaten,' 'rectify' and 'echo' without hesitating over the strokes or getting the lengths and angles wrong.

There are twenty separate strokes in 'echo,' three little characters squished on top of a larger flattened one, and fitting them all in is _hard_!

* * *

Tajima-sama arriving after koto practice is unexpected. Ohabari-oba expecting Kita to serve him formal tea is even _less_ expected, but at least she already knew she was doing tea ceremony practice today and is suitably dressed in her pale iris kimono and the cream obi with gold woven through it to scatter roses across the fabric, her new comb sitting in her hair. Ohabari-oba provides fresh yōkan to go with the tea and Kita slowly, deliberately carries out a chakai before her uncomfortably attentive audience.

She knows she is not good at this. Having to do it all right-handed does not help. The tea ceremony cannot be done left-handed, no matter how much less awkward that would be for her.

Ohabari-oba and Tajima-sama engage in casual conversation as she carefully portions out matcha one cup at a time, adds hot water and whisks it in the appropriate manner; this is part of a less formal tea ceremony, so she has to ignore the talk even though she is the subject of their conversation. At least it is not her lack of fluidity in serving tea that is being discussed.

Once tea has been served –making her own tea last– it must be drunk, which also takes time. Kita carefully cradles her very precious and beautiful tea bowl, peering at her two guests over the top of it. Ohabari-oba is wearing a soft sepia kimono damasked with withered leaves and a faintly mottled pale grey obi embroidered with crows in flight. Tajima-sama has on a charcoal kimono damasked with clouds, delicate silver bolts of lightning embroidered here and there.

She is thirteen today, has been learning tea ceremony for less than a year and is feeling very, very intimidated. Especially since the ongoing conversation between Tajima-sama and Ohabari-oba is currently lingering on the subject of her knowledge of clan history.

"Kita-chan," Tajima addresses her abruptly, "explain the Uchiha's clan's lineage system."

Kita lowers her tea; she can't put it down, she hasn't finished it yet. "The Uchiha clan's system of lineages is based on the heritability of the Mangekyō, the form taken by the grief of one who has manifested the sharingan," she says, taking care to keep her tone soft and measured. "The clan currently has eight known lineages. Most prominent of these is the Amaterasu lineage, to which the Outguard Head traditionally belongs."

 _Properly_ she should say, 'to which both Outguard and Homeguard Head traditionally belong,' but Tajima-sama has changed the rules there and it would be impolitic to draw attention to that. "In addition to the eight known lineages the clan has records of an additional nine Mangekyō manifestations, but the details of those family lines have been lost. Should any member of the clan manifest one of these nine historic Mangekyō, they would immediately be formally established as head of that clan lineage. There may be other unknown Mangekyō lineages within the clan, but as these have never been formally documented they are unrecognised and unnamed."

"List the eight lineages in order of current prominence."

"First is the Amaterasu lineage, the lineage of the Outguard Head. Second is Yatagarasu, third is Raiden, fourth is Inari, fifth is Kōjin, sixth is Toyotama, seventh is Konjin and eighth is Yomotsushikome."

Tajima-sama nods and turns back to Ohabari-oba; Kita finishes her tea as swiftly as is polite, as it is not more than warm now. Hopefully they too will finish their tea soon, so that she can collect the bowls and leave to do the washing up. Setting down her cup, she waits for the adults to take the initiative. She has already eaten her yōkan –sweets are eaten before drinking the tea– so she just has to sit tight and be patient.

The tea finally crawls to a close and Kita is permitted to bow them out of the room and escape; after washing up she returns to the study, where Ohabari-oba and Tajima-sama are waiting for her.

Waiting with two fukusa-draped boxes; this at least is a ritual she knows about, even if she's never experienced it for herself.

A fukusa is not like a furoshiki; it is more expensive for one, and after admiring it and removing the gift from the box under the cloth, both box and cloth are returned to the gift-giver.

Kita duly admires the cloth embroidered with Amaterasu emerging from the cave and seeing her radiance in the mirror of Yata, carefully sets it to one side and opens the box. Within is a silk kimono in lush coral pink with a bold pattern of very pale blue ripples framing white cherry blossoms and the occasional white-and-red-orange fish, along with a silk nagajuban in deep red with a simple all-over purple-black scale print, a cotton undershirt and slip in mottled creamy yellow, white tabi, wooden zōri and a sky blue obi heavily embroidered with red peonies, vibrant green grasses and a scattering of various bright-coloured butterflies.

It's an insanely extravagant gift.

She _can't_ turn it down.

Legally she is in his care, so this is less something he is giving _to_ her and more something he is buying to see her wear _for_ his son; at the very least, wear on Madara's birthday next week. Tajima-sama's probably going to do this again, even. Slightly closer examination at least reveals that the kimono and obi have been previously worn; probably by his late wife. That is slightly less terrifyingly extravagant, even though everything else is stiff and new.

Kita bows her head and offers suitably humble thanks for this magnificent treasure, carefully folds everything back into the paper wrappings and sets it to one side, then turns to Ohabari-oba's gift.

This fukusa is more modest, embroidered with a crane soaring above the setting sun and a turtle swimming through algae below. In the box underneath are a collection of kanzashi: four lacquered kogai hair pins that match the combs Hikaku and his brothers gave her –evidence that Ohabari-oba had assisted them in selecting their gift– and two pairs of bira-bira, one pair with chimes and one with tiny bells. There is also a packet of regular plain pins.

Clearly Ohabari-oba means to make sure she will no longer need to borrow hair ornaments. Kita offers her thanks, bows to both guests and sees Tajima-sama out of the house. Ohabari-oba then gives her time to put her gifts away and change into her everyday kimono before enlisting her to help make dinner.

The duck soba is very nice, both to cook and, once the boys are back, to eat; it settles her nerves. The sweet red bean paste dessert is also wonderful.

However this has definitely been the most stressful birthday of her life. Kita hopes very much it is not the start of a trend.

* * *

Madara fidgets with the hilt of his sword as he sits on a tree branch, his eyes on the road at the bottom of the short drop mere yards away from his perch. Kita gave him hilt-wrappings and a cord to tie his sword to his belt made of her hand-reared green silk for his birthday, which he has taken to fiddling with while waiting around outside the clan lands. They're beautifully soft and have more give in them than any of his previous accessories, so when they eventually wear out he's probably going to ask her for another set.

Ohabari-oba's wedding went smoothly, but she's still at Hikaku's house most days to teach Kita about being a member of the Amaterasu lineage and eventual Homeguard Head. Madara thinks Kita will be good at it; she certainly has an eye for loopholes and the creativity to take advantage of them. Just look at what Madara is doing now, hiding up a tree on a mission which had started out as arson and murder and has turned into trickery and theft.

The tea caravan –carrying the southern peninsula's new sencha harvest and the shade-grown jade dew tea that will be hand-ground for matcha– is due to pass by today. When they're not exactly sure, but rice planting hasn't even started yet so Father has granted Madara the services of the clan's crow summoner –one of his Yatagarasu second cousins– who currently has a bird circling overhead. Talking to Kita about the tea trade prompted him to do a little research along the way here, so he now knows that there are only three parts of Fire Country where tea leaves suitable for being ground into matcha are grown and that this tea caravan has won the privilege of supplying the daimyo and the country's temples for three years running, due to their leaves having pleasant umami undertones in addition to the usual fresh, subtle flavour.

These merchants and the tea plantations they collaborate with won't be entirely bankrupted by the loss of that contract –they supply plenty of other teas to the wider market later in the season– but they will have to make adjustments for not getting returns on their investment and reduce their expenditures accordingly. Madara can't say he's surprised that this group's competitors have resorted to sabotage –jealousy and envy underpin so _many_ of the contracts offered to the Uchiha– but at least the strategy Kita helped him put together means that the tea won't go to waste. It won't arrive at the capital in time to compete for the highest prices on new tea or be included in the annual matcha competition for supplying the temples and the daimyo, but it will arrive at _a_ market, it will be sold and it will be bought. Probably at lower prices than intended too, so it will reach a wider audience than merely priests, monks and the capital's wealthiest officials.

Madara knows that his father will be keeping a large quantity of the matcha-grade leaves for the clan. The umbrella bags –and that name has stuck– allow for fully airtight storage so the tea will not sour or degrade. Rather than buying small amounts of matcha fresh every month in case of guests and having to use it up regularly they can now store it indefinitely in powder form, which means being able to buy in bulk and of a higher grade.

Or in this case, steal in bulk, although they will have to pay for it to be properly stone ground. The contract simply requires them to 'destroy the caravans so that no tea arrives in the capital before June,' so ambushing them with blunt force trauma and subtle genjutsu, emptying the carts and then picking a different ambush point for the next round is easy enough. The next caravan is likely to be _much_ better guarded though, so Madara has made clear to the forty clansmen under his command that they are to ensure none of the merchants remember exactly who it was they were ambushed by –making them think it was bandits is fine– and to keep jutsu use to a minimum.

No need for anyone to realise this is an Uchiha operation, which would inspire them to hire Senju. That's going to happen over the rice later, since they have to be visible for the intimidation factor.

"They're in sight," his cousin Eboshi says abruptly. "Not going to be in range for a good hour though." A jutsu lets him see the world through his summon's eyes; a highly effective scouting method when crows are ubiquitous.

Madara reaches for his umbrella bag and pulls out his bento. "May as well eat first then." It's going to be a busy six weeks; he's grateful Kita's seal has a volume limit rather than a weight limit and that she can fit the entire contents of a storehouse in one twice over; they're probably going to need all of that.

He had no idea people drank so much tea.

* * *

Two weeks later, when the first batch of stolen tea has been handed off to the civilian clansmen who organise the Uchiha's trade shipments and Madara's subordinates all have their empty umbrella bags back, another trading caravan approaches their new –and much earlier– ambush point.

The tea merchants have indeed hired the Senju. They may well have tried to hire the Uchiha first –Father would know– but all the Uchiha are currently 'employed elsewhere' and that is probably suggestive all by itself.

At least Tobirama isn't down there; if he was the ambush would already be over. The brat's barely fifteen and already a better sensor than anybody the Uchiha can field, which is terribly annoying as it's not possible to ambush _anybody_ within ten miles of him.

If Tobirama's not here –and neither's Hashirama by the look of things– then they must already be guarding the rice crops of those landowners who took advantage of last year's flooding. The civilians hiring the Uchiha probably haven't kept their mouths shut about their intentions after all, so the landowners have had time to prepare.

Madara _knows_ that his father is a cunning warrior, but he and Izuna can't fight off Butsuma, Hashirama _and_ Tobirama all by themselves. He'll have to send a message with one of Eboshi's crows and see if his father is willing to let him delegate command and head north.

First though, the ambush.

"What's the plan, Madara-sama?" Hikaku asks quietly, staring hatefully down at the Senju walking alongside the caravan coming slowly up the valley. Hikaku absolutely _loathes_ the Senju for his little sister Toku's death.

"We've got another month to go, so we can't afford to get injured," Madara says firmly. "We also can't afford to draw attention; if the Senju realise I'm here, they'll send Hashirama on the next escort and we won't be able to steal the tea. We _need_ that tea," he insists as several other nearby Uchiha side-eye him. "The last shipment all by itself is making the clan at _least_ five times as much money as this mission is!"

"So what's the plan?" Eboshi drawls, sharingan eyes spinning in annoyance.

"We are going to make _complete fools_ of them," Madara says fiercely; he knows how to get his clansmen on his side. "It's going to be slow, but it will work. The Senju will know by the end that it _must_ have been us, but with their pride wounded they will probably downplay the risks to Butsuma. After all, if we were _hiding_ then we must have been weaker than them. We'll probably get Tobirama on the last delivery to thwart ambushes entirely, but that's still better than Hashirama; he'll sense me coming and realise he can't win." That would also make matters easier for his father and Izuna; Tobirama being away would make Hashirama restless and distracted, especially once he realises that Madara is _not_ there and likely therefore to be facing _his_ younger brother across the battlefield.

Tobirama is _not_ an honourable opponent, but he is at a least pragmatic one. The brat knows Madara is stronger than he is, so will choose retreat over an extended confrontation even with a mission on the line. Madara will be able to take on Tobirama and the best of the Senju all together while the rest of his clansmen rob –and probably burn seeing as they will have limited time to work– the caravan and deal with lower-ranking Senju.

"How?" Hikaku asks, looking abruptly very interested.

"We're going to use genjutsu. Sneak into the caravan while it's moving, in pairs with chakra suppressed, and replace the tea shipment with rocks and tree branches over several days. One of the pair has an umbrella bag loaded with junk, unloading the junk as the other one loads the tea so the weight and handling of the carts doesn't change, putting a genjutsu over the rocks afterwards so the civilians don't notice the difference too soon. We all know what a sack of tea weighs now and how many each of those carts fits; we can sneak their goods out from under their noses so the Senju feel all smug until they arrive at the end and realise they've failed completely," Madara says vindictively. "The rest of us can follow alongside in case of things going wrong, ambush civilians quietly to borrow their clothes for the infiltrators to wear and carry them along so that afterwards they can get dressed again and rejoin the group; that way the Senju will never realise that they even left."

The manic grins all around tell him he's successfully got everybody behind his –admittedly rather complicated– plan.

"If the Senju don't realise who we are they won't think to avoid looking us in the eyes," Taka, one of the five women in the party, muses maliciously. "This is going to be a _pleasure_ , Madara-sama." Taka is a highly respected genjutsu specialist in a clan where everybody with the sharingan can make illusions as easily as breathing; this mission is _exactly_ her kind of thing.

"You all know who's best at genjutsu and stealth and who has seniority," Madara says bluntly. "No more than ten going; pair up, borrow extra bags and head down the slope. The rest of us will be staying well above the tree line so as not to give you away."

"By your command, Madara-sama," Rausu chirps, already falling in beside Taka, who has seniority and is best in genjutsu of everybody present; she will have effective field command for this.

It itches not to be on the front lines, but shadowing the illusionists from ahead and above, ready to swoop down and attack should they be caught, is the best use of his skills and position of authority. This way he has command of the entire field, has Eboshi to report details to him by crow and won't get them found out because his ability to suppress his chakra still slips when he's stressed.

It's a magnificent success; Eboshi's genjutsu projection of the Senju's reaction when the theft is revealed a week later –as seen by crow eyes– has the entire battle group rolling on the ground laughing with glee in their hideout twenty miles away.

Tobirama is indeed sent with the third –and last– shipment they are contracted to waylay. That clash is a violent, wasteful carnage –Madara loses Rausu and twelve other clansmen have to be carried from the field due to their injuries– but they take half the tea, the rest is burnt along with the wagons and the merchants have hopefully learnt that pitting Senju against Uchiha gets everybody in the vicinity killed too, especially when the clash takes place in narrow valley passes with nowhere to get away from the battlefield.

Tobirama survives and retreats exactly as predicted, but the Senju took more casualties, failed their mission and didn't manage to keep even half the civilians alive. Madara doubts they'll be hired again; more likely that next year these merchants will hire the Uchiha _first_ , so as not to find themselves on the opposite side of a contract.

Then he is ordered north with the twenty fittest of his group to join the rice-burning mission, which has indeed turned into outright clan warfare; the rest of the group will limp home west –with the tea and the carrying-wounded– and the ones who are able-bodied will then double back after him.

Hopefully he will arrive on the battlefield before Tobirama does.

* * *

Kita is thirteen and what her body is currently doing is _definitely_ puberty. Knowing that however really doesn't help when she is currently the technical Homeguard Head and the entire Outguard is off either engaging in grand theft tea, burning rice fields or scouting around the edges of the Senju forces to ensure the other clan doesn't decide to fulfil their contract by going off and trashing other people's rice fields, thus ensuring a universal price hike that will benefit their current employers.

She's not sure Izuna even realised that was a possibility until she pointed it out, but he'd instantly grasped the wider implications and taken them to Tajima-sama, which was why the entire Outguard is away this year despite the mission not strictly calling for it. They'll be picking up minor local missions of course, but it still means they're not available for more profitable work elsewhere.

Unfortunately, pointing out the implications of the field burning prompted Tajima-sama to appoint her as Homeguard Head before leaving and taking all the warriors with him, so Kita is thirteen years old and _in charge_ _of_ the proportion of the Uchiha clan not away completing contracts. She hadn't expected displaying an understanding of economics and its implications to be enough for Tajima-sama to grant her actual authority; surely there is more to being Homeguard Head than that? Even if her decisions have to be approved when he returns and she needs to persuade the elders to support her choices, he can't exactly _change_ what she's done and spent retrospectively.

Ohabari-oba is still doing most of the interpersonal bits for her, but Kita has to personally sign off all the financial stuff and decide what the clan is going to _do_ with all the tea that they suddenly have piling up.

Kita was not expecting her –very basic– knowledge of market forces and the effects of plenty or scarcity on price to be such an asset to the clan. Yes, all the clan members who go on trading ventures _do_ know that you get a better price for something if it is a thing the customer can't get elsewhere without compromising on quality, but the Uchiha clan mostly deals in specialist goods and services so they don't really have a conscious understanding of what flooding the market does to fellow traders in the short- and long-term.

It is at least easily explained with a few thought exercises, so she doesn't have any trouble getting the clan's trading branch to be fully on board with splitting up two-thirds of the tea –still in the now-officially named 'umbrella bags'– and agreeing to take it out of the country. North for the first shipment; the tea season starts later in the north, so there'll be a lucrative market for new tea there at this time of year and the clan will be able to command high prices for it. They'll also be able to spend the money on goods that are harder to get hold of in Fire; the groups heading for Hot Springs and Iron are under orders to buy iron sand. As much iron sand as they can get at such short notice; it is easy to stockpile now the clan has essentially unlimited space and will provide wider market opportunities later. The quarterly local iron sand order will of course continue unchanged; no need to alienate their usual supplier.

There will be a smaller group heading west into Wind in a few weeks, provided there is more pilfered tea to load them up with; Wind doesn't have much to sell. In the meantime however the remaining tea is being divided up so that some of the matcha-grade can be stone ground immediately –well, taken to a suitable tea-grinding cooperative where the clan will pay for it done with a percentage of the product– and the rest is stored. The new sencha is valued, tithes are set aside for the Outguard and Homeguard Heads and the rest is made available to the clan at a fairly nominal fee.

The tea was essentially free, so charging more than a token sum intended to supply income to those clan members who run the storehouses would be exploitative. There's also an upper limit to how much tea any household can buy, so that nobody gets it into their heads to hog it all. The new tea still all vanishes inside a week; the next load does indeed arrive in time to justify a small trading party heading to Wind.

By this point Kita has a detailed wish list from the clan's craftspeople –things that would enable them to expand their business or improve productivity– and another wish list from the clan's elders, which is more along the lines of militarily useful things and luxuries.

She is already investing heavily in iron sand, which will go a way to boosting the military side of things. Additional items she feels comfortable purchasing in bulk before tea profits come in from the Wind trip include nori, kombu and other edible seaweeds, salt, dried or otherwise preserved fish and seafood, lacquer and washi. Other things will have to wait until later in the season, but she has plans for citrus trees, white mulberry trees –genetic diversity is important and Mama's trees are all clones– paper mulberries, rice bran for pickles, cotton –both raw and woven– along with medicines, dyes, precious metals and other raw materials the clans only needs small quantities of but will suffer without. Including books; education and entertainment are both important.

She may end up buying silkworm eggs as well; Mama only raises enough for her own projects and if the clan could make its own silk that would be a steady source of income as well as pride. It would also provide impetus for an increased investment in peace; silk requires peace to be truly beautiful, as raising silkworms needs a steady supply of leaves, weaving is time-consuming, the various more exotic dyes must be bought and the resulting bolts of cloth must be sold. Yes, there _is_ a market for raw cocoons, but the prices are far lower. Processing and labour add value, which is only to be expected.

With domestic silk the hard part is keeping the silkworms fed; they eat like mad, far faster than Kita's wild caterpillars do, and there are several generations a year. White mulberry thankfully grows very fast, so it is possible to scale up silk production so long as you can also scale up the number of available trees.

Kita is planning on planting new white mulberry saplings in communal clan space and dedicating a nearby storehouse to raising silkworms in, so that the resulting silk will belong to the clan as a whole rather to any specific individual. Individuals are of course free to grow trees from seed in their own gardens and buy their own silkworm eggs, but making the main bulk of the trees –and silkworms– communal means that everybody can dedicate a few hours to the process without any one person becoming overwhelmed. It also hardens production against individual deaths, illnesses, travel and other unexpected responsibilities.

Kita also has vague plans for a clan pottery; they have charcoal and smelt steel, they have a riverbank and nearby clay hills, so why not? She's very interested in how Uchiha techniques could assist and refine the firing process and she's sure clan pride can be leveraged there as well. Imagine serving tea with clan pottery!

She has talked about all these things where people can hear her; well, not her ulterior peaceful motives, but about how she wants to make the clan more prosperous. She has also mentioned the possibility of rearing their own livestock –probably pigs, pigs will eat anything and with the silk they're about to invest in, they'll soon have a regular supply of silkworm pupae from the reeled cocoons– and a few people already seem to be on board with the idea of reducing food waste and not having to buy pork.

By the time the battered remnant of the tea raiders return to the compound, full of glee at their successes despite their injured and dead and carrying another decent load of leaves, Kita has stitched many more seals for storing the purchased iron sand in, authorised two young clansmen to apprentice themselves to a potter in a nearby affiliated village, ordered the building of a very sturdy pigpen on the edge of the compound –nobody knows whether having pigs will attract wild boars and letting the animals roam in a fenced section of woodland is better than sacrificing part of a field– replenished the pharmacist's stores and marked out an area of communal clan land for an orchard.

Hearing that Madara has been summoned directly to assist in the field burning mission with the rest of his division –evidence that matters have indeed escalated into all-out war– is really worrying, but all Kita can do about that is arrange for the last load of tea to be sold on various local markets, stock up on leather and lacquer to repair armour with, fix up the coats of the wounded, hold funerals for the dead –thankfully only three– and try to come up with ways for widows to earn money. Soon it will be time to harvest the hemp, and with how much has been planted everybody is going to need to help with the processing, so that's a temporary fix at least.

The merchants who funded the tea raids have paid in full, so Kita just has to get her next round of purchases approved by the elders; it's mostly gone through as the only remaining arguments are over what is going to be done first. Considering the Wind trading group are due back any day with _more_ money –and probably a fair amount of gold; there are gold sands in Wind– the bickering will hopefully die down a bit. It is only possible to do so many things at a time when almost half the most able-bodied adults are off killing each-other and getting killed in turn. Maybe she can push the silk thing as a way for the clan's widows and older orphans to bring in money? It would take the onus for such things off everybody else and raising silk is considered a suitably feminine profession.

The only benefit of the field-burning mission is that, it being commissioned by large-scale rice growers, the clan has been paid _in_ rice. Well, rice futures; they won't actually get to collect until harvest time.

Kita just hopes the war won't stretch too far beyond harvest time. The weather this year has been surprisingly mild, so if that stays true the fighting could continue well into November. She desperately hopes that won't happen, but the saying on how fortune favours the prepared has truth to it so she consults with retired Outguard members –who make up the martial side of the Homeguard– to reinforce patrols and provide extra training to teenagers who have little to do over the summer outside of the busy but brief harvest periods.

Clansmen aren't allowed to actually join the Outguard if they're younger than fourteen, but training is available to everybody over the age of eight. Madara, Izuna and Hikaku joining as young as they did was due to Tajima-sama deciding for them.

Kita hopes that all the things she's done in Tajima-sama's absence will meet with his approval. Or at least Madara's approval; her betrothed is more likely to see what she's actually trying to achieve.

* * *

It _is_ in fact November before the Outguard limps home, fifteen men short and more than half the survivors injured. The funerals will be ongoing for well over a week; her uncle Sefuri is among the dead. She didn't know him that well, but his death hurts and Auntie Tsuyu is inconsolable.

Madara rants at her for almost an hour about Hashirama trying to sell peace with bloody hands before finally managing to burst into tears and mourn his lost clansmen. He falls asleep by the iori, his head resting on her calves as she strokes his hair, and Kita probably would have sat up all night so as not to disturb him if Hikaku hadn't shuffled out of his bedroom carrying spare pillows and blankets to make Madara comfortable with so she can sleep in her own bed without waking up her betrothed and sending him home.

This is how Kita discovers Madara is a sleepwalker: when she wakes up the following morning he is curled up next to her under the blankets, still wrapped in the one Hikaku covered him with the night before, one arm snaked around her torso and his face buried in the back of her neck.

He wakes up the moment she tries to slide out from under him and his _utter mortification_ at having crawled into her bed –complete with babbled apologies and the incidental admission that it is usually Izuna that he does this to– drives him to hide in the study for an hour, chakra an agitated swirling mass, which in turn forces Kita to coax him out with food and assurances once the younger boys have all been fed and firmly sent out for their lessons.

She very much appreciates his moral fibre, but she would like him to trust that she _knows_ he is a kind and respectful person. She isn't about to assume he has nefarious motives for something as innocent as falling asleep on her. Conveying this to her profoundly embarrassed betrothed is however somewhat challenging; Kita just _knows_ she's going to be late to naginata practice.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All the games mentioned are real and exist.

Kita _is_ in fact late for naginata practice. She however does not have to apologise, because Izuna is there waiting with the group and immediately addresses her:

"I take it Madara stayed over?"

"He fell asleep by the iori," Kita agrees, choosing not to reveal the additional details.

"Kita-chan, I _know_ he sleepwalks now," the fifteen-year-old says impatiently, "and since I didn't wake up half-suffocated by my clingy overprotective older brother like has been happening almost every night for the entire past _three months_ then _you_ must have. Father mentioned he wasn't worried when Madara didn't come home last night so _he_ certainly knows what happened; I'm just here to make sure your lovely teacher doesn't penalise you for wrangling our beloved but currently somewhat high-strung clan heir before breakfast." He grins at Naka-sensei, the expression not quite as sincere as usual; he looks terribly tired under that veneer of determined cheer. "I'm sure _all_ the clan's sensors noticed him wake up; I certainly did."

Izuna is getting decent at short-range sensing now that he meditates regularly; Kita believes his range is something like thirty metres, which certainly spans the distance between the clan hall and Hikaku's house. Madara's range is shorter –maybe five metres– but considering neither had any talent for it at all when they started, it's still impressive. Not that noticing Madara when he loses control of his chakra presence genuinely _requires_ a person to be a sensor.

"Please don't tease him just yet," Kita requests gently. "He's stressing about the funerals."

"Hey, I know my brother," Izuna objects mildly. "I can hold off until he's unwound a bit. See you later, Kita-chan."

He strolls off. The lesson begins as though it hasn't been delayed twenty minutes by the Outguard Head's second son. Nobody comments on the implication that Madara has spent the night in her bed. Then again, they're betrothed; he's kind of _expected_ to be there, despite her not being fourteen yet to his almost seventeen. Gossip is however unlikely to surface; Izuna has made sure of that.

In between the funerals Tajima-sama goes over all her decisions on the financial side, making her defend some of them and talking to the clan elders several times, but ultimately approving of all of them. Even the out-clan apprenticeship, which she was genuinely worried about; it seems 'bringing new skills into the clan' is a valid argument and her speculation into the possibility of specialised Uchiha ceramics made with clan fire techniques –potentially including armour– are interesting enough for him to allow it.

She and her candidates for external training will have to gain his approval _first_ next time, of course.

Kita suspects his leniency party hangs on the sheer _profit_ the clan has made off all that stolen tea. He knows that was her idea and it has placed them in a more stable position than they've been in since before Tajima's father led the Uchiha. They have a highly respectable stockpile of iron, have increased their food security with livestock and fruit trees, her idea of having the clan's widows raise silkworms will reduce the drain that supporting them places on the clan's coffers and her seals are what made it all possible.

He's going to expect her to produce something new and profitable in time for next year too. She is unfortunately going to have to disappoint him there; hopefully the disappointment will convince him that she is an unambitious homebody. All she wants to do this winter is catch up on her weaving and let out Izuna and Madara's coats again. Izuna isn't growing as fast as Madara, but he is most definitely much taller than he was in the spring. The thing is that he's still only about the same amount taller than Kita as he was before, because she has grown too. She let out her own yukata before putting it on in the summer and let out all her kimono at the same time, so they would fit in the autumn.

Madara is almost the same height as his father now. Once let out, his coat will be full sized. He doesn't seem to have finished growing yet, but Kita hopes he stops soon. Much more and his coats will require additional material to account for the width of his shoulders, which means she will have to rework the patchwork lining to account for it.

* * *

Winter is quiet and very, very cold; Madara appreciates it because not even the Senju are going to try to fight in this weather. It's so cold that sparring and training is done inside the strategy hall in squad groups rather than in the training fields, which never happens even when it snows.

There's no snow this year though; it's just bitterly cold and windy, with everybody huddling in their homes for warmth. Madara spends most days in Hikaku's house, which is smaller and less draughty than the clan hall and full of cousins besides. Izuna usually comes over too; Kita cooks, spins and entertains Hijiri, Hidaka and little Benten with all manner of stories, most of which Madara's never heard before. They're wild and weird and frequently a little confusing in layout; the inside of her head must be a really strange place, for her to come with all of these.

He also gets to watch her take out Hikaku's coat and stitch seals into the pile of new coats that her mother and little sister bring over one morning; eight-year-old Naka –why do so many Uchiha parents call their daughters that? It gets so confusing– chatters happily with Kita about painting coat linings and sashiko quilting as the older girl admires the coats and warmly praises her efforts. Kita spends all of that day in the kitchen with her mother; Madara doesn't really blame her, but it still means that it falls to him to keep his brother and cousins entertained. He ends up teaching them several card and dice games, which goes down reasonably well despite Hidaka only being four and Benten being three.

He leaves out the gambling element that is the reason the Outguard plays these games at all; for the children winning should be enough.

Every single day Kita bundles up Hijiri, Hidaka and Benten in so many layers they look like miniature sumo wrestlers and sends them outside to run around the compound with the clan's other children for an hour, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Madara is somewhat terrified by the sheer _energy_ of his younger cousins, but also deeply relieved that Kita knows what to do with it all. After their runs in the chilly outdoors his cousins are mostly happy to listen to stories, nap or play indoor games.

Kita invents a few amusing games for them to play, drawing them out on paper then explaining the rules. Madara spends many, many hours rolling dice and then marching his game piece along a grid, climbing up ladders and sliding down snakes according to where he lands. There is also a game where players collect paper flatfish parts in matching colours according to what number they threw on the dice in order to assemble entire fish –Kita _always_ wins at that one despite never cheating– and another one with a meandering little squared path through a garden where if you land on one of another player's pieces you send them to be 'locked up' until they either throw a six with the dice or somebody else gets locked up, because the 'tower prison' is only large enough for one person at a time.

Hidaka and Benten _especially_ love that one. They shout 'off to the tower!' and giggle every time somebody gets landed on. Kita actually makes a little origami tower to stand on the paper for that game, just big enough to sit a game piece in the top of it.

Izuna tries everything to beat the fish game, including fairly blatant cheating, but Kita _still_ wins every time. Madara suspects she's been blessed by all seven of the Lucky Gods, because nothing else makes sense. _Nobody_ wins at dice games like that!

He gives Kita a mirror and stand for her birthday and she cooks inarizushi and gives him a book on the history of falconry for his; he's told her about his hobby but not actually shown her his birds yet. Madara immediately resolves to rectify his oversight; falconry is an expensive pastime –most of his allowance as clan heir is spent on making sure both his birds are well-fed and suitably exercised while he's off running patrols or doing other clan work– but he really enjoys it and his father approves because it is exclusively the purview of the nobility. The Uchiha are a noble clan, so they should exercise their privileges.

The days Madara does not visit his cousins he either spends with his father discussing inter-clan politics –Kita has cultivated the connections with their allies to both disperse the tea and stock the clan using the funds earned from selling it and his father is reaping the benefits– or goes hunting with his goshawks. He coaxes Kita into joining him on a half-day hunting trip after his birthday; she is awed by the birds and respects their personal space, but it's clear by the end of the afternoon that she doesn't find it as thrilling as he does. Probably because she's not the one doing the actual hawking, which is fair enough; Madara found watching his great-uncle to be exciting when he was younger, but it wasn't until he got to actually fly a bird that he was hooked forever.

She doesn't _dislike_ his hobby though, and she likes the birds enough to ask if she can try to draw them from life. Her first attempts aren't great –she reuses the back of those for kanji practice later, much to his amusement– but it's a great excuse to stand around in the woods and dote on his birds, feeding them with a lure so Kita can sketch them on the wing, and one of her later ink paintings captures his favourite goshawk's silhouette on his glove so _perfectly_ that he begs it off her to hang on his wall. He does a few sketches for her himself; it's much easier with a sharingan-sharp memory and he's a decent artist. Unlike _Hashirama,_ who insisted his terrible stick figures were art.

Madara also spends quite a bit of time on winter evenings drinking tea and pretending to read while Kita weaves. She claims not to be very good at it, but given the Bishamon tortoiseshell pattern cleverly woven into the pale green-gold silk under her fingertips he thinks she's under-estimating herself. She certainly focuses on her weaving far more tightly than she does on her embroidery, but that might just be lack of familiarity; he knows she's been sewing since she was six.

It's oddly humbling, watching bolts of kimono and obi fabric come together out of so many miles of fine green thread. He hires out his warrior skills to bring in money to the clan, but Kita is making something with her own two hands which will bring in significantly more than a solo retrieval mission. She finishes her weaving in late February, just as the weather changes abruptly from bitterly chilly to surprisingly warm, then immediately picks up needle and coloured thread to embroider one of the obi, complete with a detailed design drawn on washi that she meticulously traces onto the silk.

It's a picture of a goshawk on the wing, all of its markings meticulously rendered and each wing feather outlined. Madara abruptly wants to kiss her.

"You're embroidering one of my birds on an obi?"

Kita glances up at him over the pinkish thread she's threading her needle with. "They're beautiful birds," she says, like that's explanation enough. As though she hasn't _created_ this pattern from _scratch_ after spending _hours_ standing outside in the cold sketching his grumpy feathered drama queens, as a way to spend time with _him_ and be supportive of his hobby, and is now planning on spending even _more_ time stitching one of said birds onto a piece of clothing she might even _wear_.

"Yes, they are," he agrees, throat tight. "Are you going to sell it when it's finished?"

Kita glances down at the delicate, intricate lines drawn across the silk on the frame in her lap. "I'm hoping it looks good with my purple kimono when it's done," she confesses. "I need a less formal obi and the colour scheme for this is suitably light and subtle; contrasting shades of pale and charcoal grey on the underside offset by the yellow eyes and claws and the brown of the head and wings. I might add a few fleeing pygmy woodpeckers to the short end section and on the side of the waist, for a bit more interest."

Madara gives in to the urge, shuffles over the tatami and kisses Kita's hair just above her ear. "I think that would look very elegant and austere." Perfect for a tea ceremony in fact, as clothing for those is supposed to be plain and subtle, so as not to distract from the event itself.

"We'll have to see," Kita says idly, making her first stitch. Madara hopes this year's missions are more piecemeal; he wants to watch her make this, see it grow under her needle and come to life, not have to leave her behind for six months and come back to find it finished.

* * *

Ohabari-oba is pregnant. It's not particularly noticeable just yet, but Kita has watched Mama go through four pregnancies and she knows the signs. She wonders if Ohabari-oba has confided in her husband regarding her condition yet or whether she is keeping it to herself until after he returns from the escort mission he is on. The tea merchants the Uchiha spent last spring robbing blind have this year approached the clan to hire them to _protect_ their wares, so newly-sixteen Izuna is out leading his first mission with his new uncle as part of his squad.

Kita has a feeling that there are _very much_ hard feelings on the merchants' parts there, but also a pragmatic recognition that if you want the ninja on your side, you have to hire them first. She suspects playing tea-escort will turn into a regular request for the clan; matcha is highly lucrative and the only people who are going to agree to attack a caravan protected by Uchiha are Senju.

Senju who _also_ have a bone to pick after last year's humiliation. They won't attack a merchant caravan unless hired though; they're too proud to resort to banditry.

Spring this year is warm and luxuriant and everybody has recovered from the bitter rains of two years ago, so there are many more mundane missions being offered to the clan: escorting goods to market, chasing down thieves, locating runaway daughters, burning rice stubble to enrich the ground for fresh planting in May and acting as witnesses for contracts.

The Uchiha do a surprising number of contracts. The local civilians feel that having a shinobi clan act as guarantor will prevent the other party from defaulting, and that the Uchiha are a noble clan means they are also universally literate; any warrior can read through a contract to make sure nothing has been snuck in by the scribe without both parties' consent. This far away from the capital, with the land-owning and administrative samurai inaccessible to the common man, shinobi clans end up doing a lot of the intercessory stuff.

A few samurai land-owners' over east and south is the land belonging to the Akimichi, who are far more accessible and personable towards their tenants. The Uchiha rarely get called out that far, and only in cases of contracts between Akimichi tenants and other civilians who have Uchiha patronage; then each side hires their own shinobi and everything is signed and counter-signed.

There's stiff competition in the upper ranks for those missions; Akimichi food is second to none. The Akimichi are a noble clan and so treat with the Uchiha in a manner befitting such, regardless of the occasional clashes on missions.

The main problem with having so many mundane missions is that towns and villages under Senju influence border the ones under Uchiha influence and there's a substantial amount of overlap due to how close their clan lands are to each-other. The usual peasant method of hiring a shinobi is to grab one in passing on their way to or from another mission –generally offering food or other goods to make up for the delay– but merchants and minor officials will send messengers, generally choosing one clan or the other according to their own goals and intentions.

For instance, if a mid-ranking samurai discovers that his daughter is allowing a Senju shinobi to court her, he is likely to hire Uchiha to 'bodyguard' her, knowing that this will likely lead to the death of the Senju in question and allow him to marry off his daughter without further interference.

Of course such a thing would also lead to increased hostility between the two clans, but that wouldn't be the _client's_ problem. They'd got what they'd paid for.

Kita wants to bang her head against a wall sometimes over how _blatantly_ the clan lets itself be played, blinding themselves to the truth out of anger and arrogance and petty spite. At least she is gradually managing to introduce Madara and Izuna to the concept of _cui bono_ , although she doesn't expect Izuna to do much with it. He has a massive irrational blind spot where the Senju are concerned.

Izuna detests the Senju as a whole for the deaths of his youngest brothers, murdered in their beds aged five and three. It is a wild and terrifyingly formless hatred that is all irrational screaming and probably has some form of self-loathing at its root, seeing as Izuna was nine when his baby brothers died and nine-year-olds are both unconsciously self-centred and tend to think in absolutes. And Kita says that as somebody who has _been_ nine not so very long ago; she remembers not understanding why she had to use the -sama suffix for Izuna when he was so bratty.

Madara on the other hand blames Senju Butsuma _personally_ and thinks of the man as 'my sort-of friend's horrible father,' which is a far narrower and more controlled hatred. Madara also blames the whole on-and-off war between their clans just as much and classes his baby brothers as 'casualties of war,' which makes _him_ all the more determined to end the war for good before it claims Izuna too.

Tajima-sama was once the oldest of six. That only one brother lived to have children is not good odds and that the Outguard Head is implied to have _murdered_ Niniji-sama over clan politics just a few years ago makes it all worse. That Madara was probably there when it happened is the cherry on top of that particular cake.

Madara being away means Kita gets lost inside her head a lot more, due to not having anybody else to talk to. She should check on her caterpillars, head out to visit the widows' silkworm cooperative that Grandma is gleefully involving herself with and try to socialise more with her peers in the main lines of the clan's various lineages; as Homeguard Head –or at least as the front for Ohabari-oba– she needs to know these people as more than just casual acquaintances she is polite to over tea.

She's fourteen; she needs female friends to giggle with, dammit.

* * *

Madara doesn't know what happened. He was only away for two weeks and now he's back there are six girls on the engawa with Kita, all chatting and giggling as they reel silk and hang the damp threads out to air in the garden. He recognises two of them –one is Eboshi's sister Misao, the other is Kiyoshi of the Raiden lineage– but having _all_ of them glance up at him, bow and chorus 'Good afternoon, Madara-sama' as he walks up the path is really a bit much.

"Good afternoon," he manages, bowing reflexively in return. "Kita-chan?" Can she please explain what's going on?

"Ohabari-oba wants me to socialise more," Kita tells him lightly, fine silk strands twisting around her fingers as she reels them out of a bowl of water and hangs the damp thread in long loops over a set of pegs attached to a board. "Should I prepare for a lesson? Sannosawa-sensei has been monitoring my progress."

"Kita-chan, your betrothed wants to spend time with you," Kiyoshi says archly, twining silk around her fingers and picking up the bowl with her cocoons in. "Inemi, can we move to your parents' garden? Your mother's not entertaining today, is she?"

"She's visiting Yumiori-oba," the fox-faced girl who has to be Inemi replies, getting up to take hold of the board Kiyoshi's thread is being hung on. "Asami, Naka, untangle Kita-chan; Misao, would you go get Yori to help you and Tsune move the other boards? We don't want to impose on Madara-sama."

The flock of brightly-dressed girls gradually disperses, leaving Kita behind. She's wearing her pink kimono with the cherry blossom pattern, the sleeves tied back with tasuki so they wouldn't dangle in the water or tangle with the silk she was reeling, the pale green obi she wove herself around her waist, the one he watched her embroider a goshawk on earlier in the spring. He can't see the goshawk since she's facing him, but he knows it's there and one of the pygmy woodpeckers is visible just above her hip.

"Come and sit down, Madara-kun?" Kita asks, patting the engawa beside her then reaching up to untie the tasuki. "When did you get back from your mission?"

"Not long ago," Madara admits as Kita shakes her sleeves loose, conscious that he only stopped by the clan hall for long enough to strip out of his armour and protective gear and hang up his coat to air. He's sweat-stained and probably smells bad as well.

"Did it go well?"

"I completed the mission," Madara says, slipping out of his sandals before sitting on the edge of the engawa with bare feet dangling. "Partly because the runaway daughter I was chasing had married a runaway younger son that Hashirama was chasing and he didn't want to fight me."

"That sounds," Kita pauses diplomatically, "complicated."

"It was." Hashirama might be his friend but the man is so _pushy_. Madara hadn't realised _how_ pushy until after learning to rein in his own chakra; Hashirama's chakra is free-flowing and suffocatingly eager, like a gigantic temple dog that hasn't noticed it isn't small enough to fit on people's laps anymore.

No, Madara is _not_ speaking from experience there. Anybody who has anything to say to the contrary is a filthy liar, Izuna _especially._

He'd had to deliberately loosen his control and push _back_ at the idiot Senju just to keep himself from being overwhelmed. Was that what he'd been like to be around before Kita explained things? If so, no _wonder_ his cousins had kept their distance. He must have been exhausting without even realising it. Of course his interactions with his cousins on the battlefield are generally short and to the point, but they do banter a bit in the forward bases in between clashes these days. Hashirama however still manages to frustrate him in short order.

Kita shuffles forwards until she is sitting next to him. "Want to talk about it?"

"He's just so _friendly_ and when I point out that our families are _at war_ he goes all sad and pouty and _wails_ , like it's _my_ fault for reminding him!" Madara complains gratefully, waving his hands in an attempt to express how _confusing_ Hashirama is. "Then when I said we didn't have to fight he instantly stopped sulking and wanted to know everything I'd been doing since he last saw me and what kind of mission I was doing, like the last time we met wasn't _across the battlefield_ and it didn't _matter_ that he crippled Atago and Kurama right in front of me!" They'd both had perforated stomachs from being impaled on tree roots to go with the crushed bones and he'd had to slit both their throats as a mercy after the battle was over. It had _hurt_ and he didn't _care_ that he had Mangekyō now, it wasn't worth it. He'd fought alongside those two ever since joining the Outguard; they'd been like older brothers to him and Hashirama had tossed them both aside like _trash_.

"Well, you killed Senju on your mission before that," Kita points out mildly.

Madara grumbles. He hadn't killed those people in front of _Hashirama_ ; he'd killed them in front of Tobirama. Okay, so dead was dead, but it wasn't the same. Madara will forever remember Atago and Kurama's wounding and eventual deaths with perfect, gut-wrenching clarity, be forced to relive how helpless he was to do anything except grant them mercy; his nightmares were bad enough already! "Anyway, I talked about things he can't use against the clan, like my hawks, and eventually mentioned that the mission I was on was looking for a runaway daughter," he continues, "and found out that he was looking for a runaway younger son. Comparing notes revealed some interesting similarities, so we agreed to divide up our search area and both look for both."

"Did you find them?"

"Yes, they'd got married and were living with the estranged brother of the man who hired Hashirama, who was planning on making the son his heir. Of course I couldn't abduct her and take her home at that point, so the brother wrote letters for us to take back to our respective employers." Madara sighs. "I still got paid, so I guess the brother was affluent enough for the girl's father to approve of the alliance. No idea what happened on Hashirama's side of things though; I ran for it as soon as the client dismissed me."

Kita pulls out her fan from her bag and fiddles with it absently; Madara's noticed before that she's uncomfortable without something in her hands. "Madara-kun, can I ask a slightly personal question?"

"Always." He wants her to be honest with him and tell him things; he doesn't remember his parents _ever_ having a proper conversation and it was like the house had a gaping hole in the middle of it. He didn't even _realise_ that the hole was where conversation was supposed to be until he started spending more time with Niniji-oji and Naka-oba and saw them talking effortlessly every time they were in the same room.

"Do you consider Hashirama to be a friend?"

Madara sagged. "Yes." May all the gods help him.

" _Why_ do you consider him your friend?"

Because… because right from that first meeting, he'd felt like Hashirama _understood_. Here was a person who _saw him_ and wanted peace just like he did. A person he didn't have to either protect or obey, because they weren't part of the clan hierarchy. "He…" Madara gropes for words. "He didn't _want_ anything from me. He was just _there_. And I felt…" He couldn't articulate it.

"It's just that, and forgive me if I'm being too forward here, when you talk about him you don't sound as though you _like_ him very much."

Madara groans, ducking his head so his hair falls over his face. "I don't." Hashirama gets under his skin like not even _Izuna_ can manage.

"So _why_ do you see him as a friend?"

Because Madara _loves_ the grinning moron. Has done ever since that first time by the river when Hashirama had that terrible haircut and was crying and they'd talked honestly about how much they both wanted peace for their little brothers. He loves the man like another brother, as much as he's ever loved Izuna, and it _hurts_ because every time they face each-other across the battlefield Madara can't see that Hashirama is doing _anything_ to make that village they always spoke of more tangible than a fever-dream.

He loves Hashirama, will always love Hashirama; he's an _Uchiha_ , none of them know how to smother their hearts.

Madara groans again, flopping sideways and burying his face in Kita's shoulder. "I'm an idiot," he mumbles, "and he _matters_ to me." He can't say the words. Not when he's only just noticed that he cares _that_ much. Cares _too_ much.

Kita leans into him, holding him up and letting him hide as she takes his hand in hers, her fan lying discarded on the engawa beside her.

"I asked," she says quietly after a long but restful pause, "because your descriptions of him make me uncomfortable."

Madara frowns, sitting upright again to scrutinise her face. What has he said to put that uneasy note in Kita's voice?

"Did he apologise for Atago-san and Kurama-san?" Kita asks softly, meeting his eyes. "Did he at any point show remorse that he has caused you pain? Because from your description it sounds like he made _you_ apologise for pointing out that he'd hurt you."

Madara opens his mouth to defend his friend and finds he doesn't know what to say. Hashirama… _had_ he done that? Every time Madara does or says something Hashirama doesn't like his friend sulks and wails until he relents, but does _Hashirama_ ever apologise?

Madara cannot think of a single instance where Hashirama has expressed regret over anything he has personally done that has upset Madara. He suddenly feels uncomfortable and exposed.

"I'm sorry–"

"Don't be sorry, Kita-chan, it's not your fault," he assures her quietly, squeezing her hand as his eyes drop to the polished wood of the engawa. "Thank you for telling me." If Madara does not hold the same importance in his friend's heart as Hashirama does in his, then Madara will have to keep that in mind and take steps to protect himself. The clan has stories about past Uchiha whose attachments were not genuinely reciprocated and the depths it could plunge them into all unknowing; now that he _knows_ he can act accordingly. It still hurts though. Hurts _terribly_ that he will have to weigh Hashirama's every word and deed and spend every meeting judging the extent of his friend's regard, so that Madara can limit himself to matching it and give no more.

That he has to guard his heart so as not to break himself over a man who wouldn't even _notice_.

"Thank you for listening," she whispers, leaning into his side and playing with his fingers.

Madara doesn't love Kita like that. But he thinks he could learn to.

* * *

Explaining to Tajima-sama in the late autumn that no, she's not going to make exploding seals for the Outguard, is so _very_ hard. Justifying it is harder.

"I am sorry to disappoint you, Tajima-sama, but I _can't_ make a seal that explodes. If something that has been made explodes then it's _broken_ and my seals aren't. A knife that shatters while being sharpened is nothing but a liability."

"Fireworks explode," the Outguard Head points out mildly over his tea. She thankfully does not have to perform a tea ceremony _every_ time Tajima-sama visits, but he is still her primary audience there. This tea however is regular brewed sencha, because he was waiting in the house's central hall for her to finish her kanji lesson with Madara. Who is now sat beside his father, cradling his own tea and watching the confrontation cautiously over the rim of his cup.

"They do not explode _at people_ ," Kita specifies. "If a firework explodes on somebody, then it has been mishandled."

Tajima-sama inclines his head. "You are unfamiliar with the rigours of the battlefield."

Kita does not know where this is going and does not trust the easy concession. The sense of impending doom in her gut is almost unnecessary confirmation.

"You will be fifteen in the winter and a good Homeguard Head needs to be aware of what the Uchiha are being protected _from_ as well as who our allies are and how far they can be trusted," the Outguard Head continues. Kita does not need Madara's visible apprehension to tell her that she will _not_ like whatever is coming next.

"From next spring you will accompany Outguard representatives to negotiate with allies and on trading missions to nearby towns. My son will of course join you on formal diplomatic ventures, but those of the clan who travel for trade know full well that they must be prepared to defend themselves, even though they are not part of the Outguard and thus not trained for the battlefield."

She was right. She does not like this at all. Tajima-sama wants her to experience violence, to traumatise her so she is more willing to do violence to others.

"As you command, Tajima-sama."

He is just going to have to live with disappointment.

* * *

Spring is when everything goes wrong for the clan.

Madara only puts the details together afterwards, but it starts like this: on the first day of spring, various Outguard members make the journey out to nearby villages to collect mission requests from allied civilians –generally accrued by a merchant or craftsman belonging to a family that regularly hires the clan's services to protect their goods– and bring them back to the Outguard Head for approval. Practically, it's when Outguard members who have civilian lovers or in-laws check in on them after the winter and catch up on gossip.

Taka of the Yomotsushikome lineage is the only Outguard member who currently has a civilian lover, so she takes the trip east to the small town where said lover –a widowed cabinetmaker called Sanrō– lives with his son. With her go Shōtoku and Obihiro, who have no specific lineage but are Madara's first cousins through his mother. Neither belongs to the Outguard, but with the weather being so good they want to get a head start on setting up trade. The Uchiha clan has more goods than usual –silk embroidery thread and bolts of dyed and fine-woven canvas especially, but also kitchen knives and razors due to the stockpile of iron sand granting them access to more steel than is needed for weapons– and everybody in the clan is eager to embrace this opportunity. Everybody likes to be comfortable.

Taka visits her lover, wearing her coat over a pretty kimono rather than her usual working outfit. Shōtoku and Obihiro wander up and down the settlement's only street, chatting to the locals about their intentions, and end up standing outside the scribe's house with Sanrō's older brother Ichirō, who manages a caravan that sells Uchiha charcoal, sawn timber and his brother's cabinets at Kōgei-gai and further afield.

At this point a Senju squad of five walks into town, immediately spots the distinctive Uchiha coats and picks a fight with Shōtoku and Obihiro. The locals of course make a fuss; people start shouting, Ichirō in particular. More people come out of their houses to see what the noise is about, including Taka and Sanrō; Taka is in such a hurry to intervene that she leaves her coat behind.

The confrontation slides towards a riot; the Senju aren't backing down despite the crowd of over thirty civilians now hurling abuse from a sensible distance. Sensing that everything is escalating, Obihiro nudges his brother back towards Taka, who is on the outer edge of the crowd and elbowing her way through in her very beautiful kimono.

The Senju see that the Uchiha are retreating and advance with intent towards them, throwing Ichirō aside into a wall. Outrage and fear spark chaos; some civilians retreat, others try to move forward. Sanrō advances angrily towards the man who just assaulted his older brother–

–and is summarily decapitated.

Taka screams, Mangekyō blooming in her eyes, pulls her kaiken from her blood-splattered hanging sleeve and throws herself at the Senju. Two of them make the mistake of meeting her eyes; they die quickly. The remaining three flee; Taka gives chase, knife in hand.

The Yomotsushikome lineage's Mangekyō manifestation allows the bearer to track their quarry regardless of terrain, distance or physical fitness and prevents external interference with the chaser. The three remaining Senju die, one after the other, the last one right at the gates of the Senju compound in front of Tobirama, who discovers for himself the potency of the Yomotsushikome's isolating effect. The effect ends as the last of her lover's murderers breathes his last, but Taka already has backup in the form of an Outguard patrol who saw her blaze past them and instantly sent a runner to alert the rest of the clan. More Uchiha arrive as the patrol retreats back to clan lands with Taka and the subsequent fighting is vicious, lasting almost two weeks, day and night, before settling into a tense, uneasy détente.

Taka is inconsolable; the only reason she does not follow her lover into death is that Ichirō very cleverly entrusts Sanrō's business and teenage son to her. This gives her purpose, although said purpose is to completely obliterate the Senju.

There will be no peace this year. His father however does not consider this reason enough to keep Kita at home, so Madara channels his fear and powerlessness onto the battlefield, where his opponents –well, opponent as Hashirama engages him every time– can be fought off directly.

Everything is terrible.

* * *

Kita's first duty of the spring is making a proper patchwork-lined coat for Taka-san, who as the first member of the clan in several centuries to have the Yomotsushikome Mangekyō is now her lineage's most prominent individual. As a newly-manifested Mangekyō, it elevates her lineage to just beneath the Amaterasu; if Madara had not previously activated his own Mangekyō, then the Yomotsushikome would in fact be _more_ prominent than the Amaterasu despite Tajima-sama being Outguard Head.

Taka-san is grieving, so Kita feels bad about approaching her over something as mundane as coats. However she and her brother Omoto _do_ both need them, and her adopted son should have a coat too even if not one with a patchwork lining as befits the head and heir of a lineage.

Kita gets around the awkwardness by inviting Taka-san and her new son over for informal tea –she will not test the woman's patience with a tea ceremony– explains bluntly about the coat custom –nominally to Teruhito, as the teen is called, since he knows very little of Uchiha customs– and offers the pattern she personally thinks would suit the new Yomotsushikome Head best: it depicts a furious woman wearing a white funeral kimono crossed right over left, brandishing a knife as she pursues Izanagi, who is tossing his broken comb over his shoulder as he flees. The comb is already sprouting into a bamboo thicket.

Taka-san hacks a laugh like it hurts. "I do like that one," she admits hoarsely. "Doesn't Madara-san have Izanagi in his coat? I've certainly made _him_ run like that before."

Kita coughs. "I can't make Teruhito-san a patchwork coat, since he's adopted," she explains, "but he can pick one of the subordinate Yomotsushikome designs and it will be painted in his coat lining."

"I'm not a shinobi, Kita-san," Teruhito says quietly.

"Every Uchiha has a coat, Teruhito-san," Kita counters gently. "You may be adopted, but that does not deprive you of the right to wear one. However your children will only have that right if you marry another Uchiha." The clan has very specific rules about adoption, seeing as they are a bloodline clan. She produces the relevant patterns; he eventually selects one, depicting the furious woman in the funeral kimono devouring a bunch of grapes.

"I'll send my brother over," Taka-san says as she sets her cup down and leaves; Kita is grateful for the complete _lack_ of drama involved there. Taka-san's brother is not Outguard or even Homeguard, so his coat ends up being delayed until later in the year; Kita is given a more important task to fill her time with.

Kita's second duty in the spring is to accompany Akaishi-san, Tajima-sama's second, to the capital with all the silk bolts, most of the thread and a sample of the cocoons the clan has produced. There is a tax on silk fabric, paid in kind to the daimyo, and as the clan is only now entering the market as a producer they have to present their goods to the Minister of Sericulture to be graded, authorised and approved, who will then select a certain proportion as tax. They will then be able to sell the rest to merchants who are authorised to trade in silk of that grade, or directly to private individuals who can afford it.

Wild silk is a loophole in this law; it is not 'cultivated' –even with Kita breeding her own moths– so doesn't count. Thus her silk and the money she makes off it are entirely and exclusively her own. There are also no restrictions on who is permitted to wear it, since it is not dyed either before or after being woven. Mama gets around this restriction by not selling her silk; her coats are a clan treasure and she is selling her labour, not the material itself. The occasional exceptions can be passed off as 'exchanging gifts.'

Visiting the capital of Fire is a long journey at civilian speeds and only slightly less long at shinobi ones, because shinobi are not permitted to run at high speed within the walls of the daimyo's city and there are specific ceremonial steps that must be taken when the representative of a noble clan seeks an audience with one of the ministers. There will be tea and gifts and extremely strict bowing protocols and Kita knows that Tajima-sama is mostly sending her because, with the clan being embroiled in outright hostilities with the Senju right now, he can't go himself and can't send Madara or Izuna either. Ohabari-oba has a six-month-old son so she can't go, which leaves Kita as Madara's betrothed, who can represent him effectively in this instance because sericulture is considered women's work.

A black furisode with full-length sleeves is produced, Kita is swiftly fitted for all possible accessories and assigned Inemi-chan as an 'attendant' to dress her properly and coach her in court protocol between events; Inemi-chan in is the main family of the Inari lineage. Kita packs the writing set Madara gave her for her birthday –poetry is a suitably ladylike activity and she _still_ doesn't know all her kanji– a few scrolls of hemp paper and a folder of washi, making sure to include regular inksticks as well as two of the ones she has made herself for her sealing.

She will also be taking her naginata, as befits the daughter of a noble clan, but it is her seals that are truly her last defence, even more than her sleeve-knife.

The absolute _worst_ part of all this is that she doesn't have a proper coat; she is not yet married to Madara, so is not entitled to a patchwork coat of her own as she is three generations removed from her lineage's main family, but her battered coat with its printed cotton lining is nowhere _near_ suitable for an event this formal. She ends up having to borrow Ohabari-oba's coat with Amaterasu neatly patchworked inside.

Once she has time again she _will_ make herself a pretty silk-lined coat. It will have to be painted and embroidered rather than properly patchwork quilted, but she _will_ make one! Tajima-sama is _definitely_ going to do this again and when he does she wants to be wearing Toyotama-hime, not Amaterasu!

It's bad enough wearing an Amaterasu furisode, although it at least matches the coat; Kita thinks it was made for Ohabari-oba as well, since Tajima-sama's mother was a Yatagarasu, or else has been handed down the Amaterasu lineage for several generations.

The Toyotama lineage probably doesn't _have_ a black furisode; it's been a long time since they've been prominent enough to need one and if there _is_ one, Granny Fuji would have dug it out of storage once word got around where Kita is headed. However if Kita is going to be presented to the daimyo at some point –which seems likely– then she _needs_ one and can probably commission one on this trip if she is suitably put-together. Making it about 'not wanting to appear before the daimyo in the same kimono' will give her leeway with Tajima-sama, since her having _two_ formal furisode makes the Uchiha look significantly wealthier and more influential.

With this in mind she goes over her coat pattern collection –including her original ones, many of which are simply artistic exercises and wishful thinking– and picks out a few favourites. Having an umbrella bag of her own means she doesn't have to worry about weight and while kimono painters are artists in their own right, she does want to present a reference. Maybe she can buy some newer art prints in the capital too, rather than relying on Madara and Izuna buying them here and there when they see them while out and about on missions.

She also packs money; not all of it, but most of her own funds. Court entertaining is bound to be expensive and to create a good impression for the Uchiha she needs to be _personally_ generous as well as when spending the clan's money.

It is possible that she will be given gifts as well as expected to grant them, but Kita is not counting on it.

* * *

The Minister of Sericulture is lean, stooped and aging, followed by a train of assistants who range from 'near-decrepit' down to 'greying but middle-aged,' which implies that in this particular ministry the concept of seniority is taken very literally indeed. Kita strangles the off-colour joke about dead men's sandals that springs to mind, bows precisely when Akaishi-san introduces her after presenting the Minister with a standard gift and does everything in her power to follow the protocol Inemi has drilled her in on the journey here.

A man this elderly is either going to be a stickler for protocol and precedence or will completely disregard it, and until he does the latter she has to assume the former.

Kita is bowed to in acknowledgement –shallower than her own bow– and invited to drink tea with the Minister while his assistants go over the entire silk shipment. Kita accepts with the appropriately humble formula and follows the Minister and his most junior assistant away from the courtyard where they were met, the other Uchiha accompanying them left behind to guard the chests of silk and assist the Minister's assistants.

No doubt a member of palace staff will appear after she and Akaishi-san have left, to direct Inemi-chan to the rooms they will be hosted in so that the rest of Kita's wardrobe can be aired in preparation for future formalities. She is not wearing her black furisode yet; this stage of the process is only at a 'visiting' level of formal, so she is wearing her pale purple kimono and the wild silk obi she has made herself with Madara's favourite goshawk embroidered on the back. Inemi-chan is dressed in a way that proclaims her a lady's attendant and is holding Kita's coat, so she will be suffering a different kind of scrutiny. Kita is not worried about Inemi reflecting poorly on her and thus the Uchiha by extension; her own part in this dance is far more challenging.

Kita is now in the lead, despite being all of fifteen. Akaishi-san is only familiar with basic tea ceremony protocol but Kita has been drilled in every single type over the past three years, including the ones that last for hours on end. Kita is higher-ranking in a noble sense and also in clan terms –the Homeguard Head is _supposed_ to be the Outguard Head's equal– despite being less than half Akaishi-san's age, so in this context she is the Lady and he is her lowly advisor.

She has already gone over what it is that Tajima-sama wants out of this endeavour with Akaishi-san, both the basics and the optional extras that might be awarded at the Minister's discretion. For now however there is nothing she can do except wait.

And, of course, comport herself appropriately over tea. They are led across another courtyard, along a covered walkway and into a tea garden, where the Minister's last remaining assistant steps aside, leaving the Minister to slowly lead the way along the path to the tea house. The assistant then hands Kita and Akaishi-san sheets of washi paper as they pass him, which they each tuck into the wallets kept in the breast of their kimono, and a folding fan each. They will need those.

It is not quite noon and March; this is probably going to be a full formal cool-weather chaji, complete with a preliminary cup of kelp or sakura tea, a meal in several courses, a break to wander politely around the inner garden and then the main event of thick tea, followed by the thin tea with sweets and a time for informal conversation.

Kita judges that the Minister's assistants will have finished their inventory by the time the meal is over, so will use that interval to report to him. Then after the tea she will be required to answer any questions the Minister may have.

Following the tea they will be granted an interval to change into more formal clothing, then meet the Minister again in a well-lit study where he will personally examine various items from the inventory as she and Akaishi-san wait for his final judgement. There will probably be more tea, if far less formally than what she will be sitting through in a few minutes' time.

Changing her tabi in the waiting room of the rustic little chashitsu at the heart of the tea garden, Kita brings her mind firmly back to the moment. This will be her first formal tea as a guest –if thankfully only as the second guest, so she will not be required to take the initiative–and she needs to be properly tranquil and appreciative, even though sitting seiza for so long is definitely going to make her legs ache.

As anticipated, the questions arrive after the thick tea has been drunk and the tea bowl properly admired, brought into the room along with cushions, pipes for smoking and higashi just before the thin tea is served. The first question, not unreasonably, is an inquiry into why the Uchiha have suddenly decided to invest in sericulture. Kita admits that it is her own idea that Tajima-sama has generously permitted her pursue, citing her childhood fascination with wild silk moths and her concern for the wellbeing of the clan's widows, many of whom previously lacked a means of generating their own income and were thus dependent on the clan's coffers.

As the Minister's face shifts into slightly softer lines Kita realises –terribly late– that the _real_ question was, 'are the Uchiha preparing for war.' Which… she can see how people got that idea; the thing with the tea the year before last and now staking out a corner of the silk market? It does look like a cash drive.

Kita expounds further, keeping her voice soft but letting her sincerity ring true, explaining her desire for the clan's widows to experience comfort and security –and adds a small, self-deprecating admission of her desire to attire her future husband with her own hands as befits his station– and feels Akaishi's chakra settle beside her as the Minister's demeanour becomes positively affable. She is an educated young lady of high birth, wishing to behave demurely and productively in a manner that befits her station despite having been born into an exceedingly warlike shinobi clan. She is betrothed to the clan's heir, implying that her peaceful, prosperous vision is the direction the clan as a whole is headed in, or at least would _like_ to be headed in.

Provided, of course, that the Senju stop attacking them without cause.

Tajima-sama is an evil genius. He _definitely_ planned this.

After the tea is over Kita sits still while Inemi-chan does her hair in a complicated and fashionable style that includes her hairpins with the hanging chimes and seasonal paper flowers, lets herself be dressed in the full-sleeved black furisode with all the under-layers and required accessories and the matching obi tied in a standing arrow knot. As an unmarried woman wearing a furisode she could _technically_ wear a puffed sparrow knot, but that would imply she is available for marriage and she most certainly is _not_. So a simpler knot it is.

Kita is grateful for her fan. It gives her something to do with her hands.

The examination actually takes place in a room facing the courtyard they arrived in, west-facing shōji doors open wide for the afternoon sun. The assistants line up with the items the Minister requests to examine and the elderly man bends over each one in turn, running his fingers over the weave, turning the fabric this way and that in the light and scrutinising the dyed, painted and embroidered fabrics with particular care.

The skeins of thread are also examined, but less extensively, and the cocoons are barely glanced at. Kita feels that might be a good sign. She hopes it is anyway.

"Uchiha-san," the Minister addresses her. "The obi you wore for the chaji was a most unusual shade. Is it also an example of Uchiha silk?"

Kita bows and glances sideways at Inemi-chan, who immediately leaves the room to fetch the obi in question. "The obi the honourable Minister speaks of is woven from spun tensan silk," she replies politely. "Wild cocoons this one gathered herself."

The Minister's interest focuses instantly, but seems more personal than his meticulous examination of the rest of the material. He waves a hand at one of the assistants –who briefly leaves the room, returning with a small table loaded with fresh tea utensils– and the pause for tea lasts just long enough for the Minister, Kita herself and Akaishi to drink it before Inemi returns with the obi. Not being able to run –due to both official restrictions and a formal kimono– delays what should have taken minutes to almost a full half-hour.

The elderly man seems quite taken with her obi, both the slightly dappled green-gold pattern created by the faintly varying tones of the silk itself and the embroidered goshawk chasing pygmy woodpeckers across its surface. When prompted, Kita explains her betrothed's passion for falconry –another civilian-approved hobby, one considered a suitable contest between noblemen as a substitute for violence– and her desire to support him however she can, despite not personally enjoying the sport. More questions about the wild silk follow –along with an almost passing assurance that breeding the caterpillars in bulk is indeed permissible and not taxed– so much so that Kita offers to weave a bolt of it for him in the autumn, in a suitably austere and masculine pattern of course.

She does in fact already have a suitable bolt at home; her Bishamon tortoiseshell pattern is just the thing, as she is yet to make it up into a kimono. Time however adds to the anticipation and means the Minister is less likely to put the Uchiha out of his mind as soon as they leave.

The Minister actually smiles when accepting her offer, returning the obi with a haiku alluding to tensan and its embodiment of the wabi-sabi principle. Kita realises he is right and instantly praises his aesthetic awareness; wild silk is indeed irregular, simple, natural, unpretentious, subtly graceful, unbound by mortal conventions and tranquil.

Akaishi is _extremely_ pleased with the resulting paperwork the Minister stamps for them, but this is only the beginning of their visit; they have to stay in the capital for at least a week to appreciate the daimyo's hospitality, allow time for the paperwork to be filed and distributed and most importantly to give the daimyo time to drink tea with his Minister of Sericulture and decide whether he wants to meet his guests personally.

The daimyo's wife has already made her desires clear; there was a formal invitation for tomorrow morning waiting in her rooms when Kita went up after the tea ceremony.

On the Uchiha side, it provides the others escorting the silk an opportunity to read up on the markets they now have access to, investigate what kind of prices silk goes for in the capital, buy gifts for family members and hear all the rumours floating around in all levels of society. More personally, Kita will have the time to locate and commission a kimono artist to paint her a black furisode in a suitably Toyotama pattern.

Perhaps Murasaki-sama or one of her attendants will have a recommendation?

Ten days later the Uchiha finally leave the capital; once they are out of sight of the walls Kita sags, rubbing her neck in a vain attempt to diffuse the tension there.

"I never, ever want to do that ever again," she declares, forgoing any kind of politeness as her clansmen chuckle around her.

"You should perhaps have been less successful then," Akaishi-san warns her dryly. "And not done whatever it was you did to make Murasaki-sama call you 'a dear little rose-girl' in front of her husband and introduce you to her favourite kimono painter."

Kita shuffles. The only thing that is truly _hers_ to bargain with is her wild silk, which she stepped up production of last summer by allowing more of the moths to hatch; her oak saplings are finally large enough to harvest from and she has negotiated with those clansmen who burn charcoal to bring her fresh leaves when they fell or trim oaks elsewhere on clan land; in umbrella bags the leaves stay fresh indefinitely. Murasaki-sama had been very curious about Kita and asked all sorts of questions, so to keep herself from talking about clan things –which occupy the bulk of her experiences– she had talked about silk. That had led to the Minister of Sericulture's haiku and her tenran, which had led inexorably to talking about Grandma –since Kita was wearing the light purple kimono Grandma had woven along with her wild silk obi– and finally to offering the daimyo's wife a gift of sufficient damasked wild silk fabric to make a full court robe, come autumn of course. Wild silk is strictly seasonal.

Murasaki-sama had of course been delighted to accept. Kita suspects she has accidentally set off a fashion for it at court with her impulsive generosity. If so, she will at least be fashionable for however long the trend lasts.

"There there," Inemi says patronisingly, patting her on the shoulder. "Look on the bright side: Tajima-sama might decide to continue exploiting your wide-eyed earnestness for peace and prosperity rather than force you into a more martial role. You play the winsome lady so _well."_

Kita hits her friend over the head with the handle of her naginata.

* * *

By the time autumn actually _arrives_ Kita has been sent on a range of less formal trading endeavours and been ambushed by Senju no less than three times. The seal she has been planning ever since Tajima announced his intent to send her outside clan lands works perfectly: it's a knockout seal. Applied to a person's skin it instantly makes them unconscious and they do not wake up until it is removed, and even then there is a three-to-five minute interval between removal and the return of the victim's senses.

Kita's clansmen really like it; it makes it so much easier to shut down an ambush when getting rushed by burly Senju who don't make eye-contact is no longer a death sentence for ranged fighters but an opportunity for a one-hit victory.

Kita likes her seal too, but she would like it rather more if her clansmen were prepared to just strip the victims of their armour, tie them up and leave them by the side of the road for somebody else to find rather than decapitating them after timing how long it takes them to return to consciousness. Because of course they listen to her when she wants them to respect the experimental process, but not when she points out that humiliation can be a fate worse than death.

Something for later; with how this year started, she's not surprised everybody's nerves are raw. Hopefully next season things will have settled down a little. Maybe start by suggesting they take more than just useful weapons off those killed after falling victim to her seal; leaving armour makes body identification easier and is a kind of gentlemen's agreement between clans, but it can be re-used and clothing is not much less distinctive. If they are going to take anything, it would be better to take it all. She knows suggesting that would probably please Tajima-sama –proof she is becoming more martially-minded– but her reasoning is utterly pragmatic. Every item stolen or destroyed, every armour plate and sandal, is something the Senju will have to replace, and thus spend money and time sourcing; materials, labour and time all add up. She doubts the Senju would go hungry –Hashirama can grow trees in moments so he can probably grow wheat or rice out of season if he cares to try and fruit trees would be _easy–_ but beggaring them in other ways would be one way to stop the fighting.

At least promising silk to high-ranking officials and the daimyo's wife has won her Grandma's eternal favour; the old lady is over the moon at getting to weave a bolt of fabric for a court robe. It has also won her additional weaving lessons; Kita can now complete an arrowhead leaf pattern, a bush clover pattern and a much more complicated clematis pattern to go with her simple checks and Bishamon tortoiseshell. What Grandma is weaving for Murasaki-sama is a mix of flowing water and pine branches –suitable for winter, so it can be worn immediately– and well out of Kita's reach, although Tateshina is currently creating a bolt of fabric with a phoenix pattern that is no less complicated.

Then again, Tateshina is terrible at embroidery. Naka is much better, if nowhere near as good as Kita was at ten. The only reason Naka is stitching up coat seams right now is that Mama had another son in April –Kita's new baby brother is called Tekari– and is utterly engrossed in him.

Fortunately for Mama, four-year-old Jōnen is happy to run errands for Papa and learn 'man things' in the forge. Yae is experienced enough now to not need watching, so Papa can devote all his attention to teaching his firstborn son his trade. Seven-year-old Midori has taken over caring for Auntie Tsuyu's chickens as well as Mama's quail and seems perfectly happy to do all the gardening and weeding as well; she is also turning out to have a real knack for cookery. Kita is thinking about enlisting her to help feed Hikaku and his siblings.

If it wasn't for the increasing number of members in the widows' cooperative, regular funerals, the injured Outguard members prowling impatiently around the compound borders as they heal and the way stress is etching lines on Madara's face, Kita could almost be happy.

* * *

After seven months of almost non-stop skirmishing in the land between the two clan compounds, the Uchiha have learned several things about the Senju. Firstly, that Tobirama's range is much, _much_ better than a mere fifteen miles; any time Madara leaves the clan compound to head for the battlefield, Hashirama always arrives at exactly the same time. The same goes for Tobirama arriving when Izuna does and Butsuma for Madara's father. The Uchiha have therefore developed a system: their sensor with the longest range is now permanently stationed at one of the forward bases, alternating shifts with Eboshi and his crows, so that when one or more of the Senju's three combat monsters leaves _their_ compound the Uchiha can direct their own out to meet them.

If the Uchiha have permanently lost the element of surprise, then they may as well be well-rested.

Madara understands the logic and hates it. Tobirama is on the field most days and some nights, so Izuna has to go out, and Madara refuses to let his little brother out of his sight so Hashirama is inevitably there too. Butsuma usually is not, which at least means that Father is able to run the clan and keep the front-line squads rotating so nobody succumbs to exhaustion.

Kita has made omamori containing nightmare-soothing seals for all the Outguard members, which they can slip into shirt collars while sleeping sitting up against trees and tuck into coat rolls when using them as pillows. The dreams are still sharingan-vivid and messily gory, but nobody wakes up screaming anymore. It's a relief to not relive all the horror and fury of the day in his dreams at night, even though Madara still sees every bloody moment. All who bear the sharingan do.

Hashirama is still an idiot; a _thoughtless_ idiot even. What kind of featherbrain starts a conversation in the middle of a fight with, "Hey Madara! Guess what? I'm betrothed!" Announcing things like that just isn't _safe_!

Madara really has to wonder how much Hashirama actually cares about Uzumaki Mito that he casually shares her name in the middle of a fight. Then again, it could easily have been a boast; the Uzumaki are infamous for their monstrous strength in battle, their chakra chains and their sealing. Mito is unlikely to be a pushover if she's who Butsuma has betrothed to his stupidly overpowered son.

That would probably have been that, except that after burbling happily about his crush for some time Hashirama had asked him about _his_ betrothed.

Madara hadn't _meant_ to use Amaterasu right then. Well no, he _had_ but it hadn't been a conscious choice. It had been the terrified realisation that if Hashirama knows about Kita, then Kita is _a target_ –his baby brothers murdered in their beds– and then, black fire everywhere as Hashirama runs away from him, Tobirama yanked off his feet in passing by his older brother and the rest of the Senju retreating in disarray after them.

The Uchiha won the day most definitively that time, even though Izuna had to half-carry him back to the compound and it took three days for his eye to stop aching, but by the next fight Hashirama has adjusted his technique so he can somehow _unmake_ the branches of his wood constructs when they catch fire so the Amaterasu doesn't stick or spread as it had before.

Having an excuse _not_ to use Amaterasu is actually a relief. It's an exhausting technique, even in neat, short bursts. It gives him an excuse to refine it further off the battlefield.

"Who told you I was betrothed?" He asks Hashirama a few battles later. Kita is in the compound now, safely returned from her latest trade mission and utterly engrossed in embroidery, weaving and overseeing the necessary preparations to get the clan through the winter. Father probably isn't going to send her out again –not when she's apparently promised both the Minister of Sericulture and the daimyo's wife a bolt of her wild silk each and a messenger will be coming to collect the gifts in a few weeks– so Madara's nerves are less strained.

"Oh, my father told me!" Hashirama says brightly. "The daimyo told him when he visited the capital in June; it's what prompted him to set up the contract with the Uzumaki. What's she like?" He pouts, ducking under the swing of Madara's gunbai. "I've told you all about Mito!"

Madara wonders –again– how much Hashirama actually _cares_ about Mito. And of course it was the daimyo; the man plays politics on a completely different level to the shinobi clans living in his territory. "She's kind," he admits eventually, blasting Hashirama with a fire technique that the idiot of course dodges, "and she wants peace too."

Hashirama _beams_. "Madara that's wonderful!" This time it is Madara who has to dodge and hack away at the flurry of branches. "We can really make it happen! I've not talked to Mito about peace but I'm sure she'll be interested too! Peace would be good for _everybody_ , we just need to show it to them!"

Madara deliberately does not mention that _his_ betrothed is _already_ showing his clan how good for them peace would be. The two clansmen apprenticing to a potter had to stall their education in order to not get picked off by roving Senju patrols, but even just those two years of training have given them a solid enough base to build off so that they can progress on their own. Clay is freely available from the banks of the river and Father is keeping an eye on the teenagers' experiments with ash and charcoal glazes.

There also appears to be fire technique experimentation taking place with a few injured Outguard members, so as to modify the firing process. Madara's rather interested how that goes; a kiln has to maintain a very high temperature for days at a time on a limited quantity of fuel. He's tempted to join in.

Kita is also keeping an eye on things; she's actually assigned a girl to keep an eye on the would-be potters and their co-conspirators, taking notes of what they do and the results. She says it's so when things work the results are reproducible and they don't accidently end up going over old ground. Madara can see the logic there. If you don't keep track of what you've tried before, how can you move beyond it?

Not everybody has a sharingan-perfect memory after all.


	5. Chapter 5

Winter looms ever nearer but the fighting does not stop. It slows, but the Senju keep encroaching on their borders and keep needing to be driven off despite the snow on the ground, and Tobirama in particular takes relentless advantage of the sudden abundance of his element to soak every last Uchiha he can ambush with his prodigious water techniques. At least a quarter of the Outguard have been treated for mild exposure and two are in bed with pneumonia; Madara is currently working on a technique that uses fire chakra to maintain body temperature, with the help of some lower-ranking Outguard with more modest chakra reserves. 'Low effort' is not Madara's strong point.

Kita of course has never seen Tobirama in person, but she has heard a lot about him from listening to Izuna rant while she mends his coat. Tobirama is very good with a sword so her blunting and reinforcement seals are not enough to keep the garment intact; she has to take up her needle every two weeks or so to restitch them and patch rents. Thankfully Izuna wears armour under it.

"–and _then_ when I tried to pin him down with Great Fire Annihilation he just _stopped it_ with this gigantic _wall_ made of _water_! I've _never_ seen that technique before! It's barely five handseals and how does he even come _up_ with these things?!"

"Try this on for me?" Kita requests, holding out the repaired coat. Izuna obligingly does so, still grumbling about his nemesis.

"I swear, he does it for _fun_. Half the time he barely bothers to attack me with chakra, he just stops all my techniques _dead_ and makes me look like a _moron_ …"

Izuna's wristbones are visible past his sleeve cuffs. Kita tugs lightly on the nearest sleeve, but it doesn't move. "Stand up for me for a moment, please?"

"Why?" Izuna's standing almost before he's finished asking that though. Kita eyes the lower hem –his knees are showing– and sighs.

"Izuna, you've grown out of your coat."

"No I haven't!"

"Your wrists and knees are showing," Kita says bluntly. "I'll have to make you a new one." He's probably never going to be as tall as his brother, but he's not short.

Izuna grimaces unhappily. "Kita-chan, we don't have _time_. I could be called out into the field at any moment!"

"All the more reason to get you into a better-fitting coat as quickly as possible," Kita retorts firmly. "It's got to be restricting your movement, and if it isn't already it will be soon." If it isn't, it's only because that coat was originally made for Madara, who is more solidly built than Izuna is.

Izuna bites his lower lip. "A _simple_ pattern then," he decides. "Something that won't take you long to put together."

He won't pick one of her originals then; those are all fairly intricate. Unless, of course, she can tempt him otherwise. "I'll get you out the designs so you can choose."

Because the Outguard and Homeguard Heads both traditionally belong to the Amaterasu lineage and they, their spouses and their children are all permitted to wear patchwork coats, there are strict rules about who is allowed to wear what in terms of imagery. Only a Head is allowed to wear a coat with Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi and Susano-o full-sized in the lining. Heirs are allowed all three, but half-sized. Kita got around that in Madara's coat by including Izanagi washing his face, making the trio's smaller size look like perspective or a feature of the storytelling. A Head's daughters are all permitted to wear a full-sized Amaterasu, and a head's sons are all permitted to wear Tsukuyomi or Susano-o.

Nephews and nieces of Heads may be granted permission to wear patchwork coats, but it is a privilege not a right. Kita thinks Tajima-sama allowed it for Hikaku because at that point there were only four other individuals in the lineage with the right to it and it affirms his brother's sons' dependence on him personally.

Nobody can upgrade the image in their coat lining above what they are permitted without both Heads agreeing to it, but if a person wants to downgrade they are free to do so. Hence Tajima walking around with a Susano-o coat from before he was Outguard Head and Madara wearing the Hare of Inaba until he grew out of it. It is however encouraged that coat linings be _distinctive_ ; they are often used to identify bodies. Mostly when bodies are too damaged to be identified otherwise.

Hikaku is wearing Tsukuyomi, so Kita is going to offer Izuna Susano-o. There are a lot of Susano-o designs, from the basic portrait with sun and moon over each shoulder as allusions to his siblings, through various mythic scenes –including Susano-o throwing a flayed pony at his sister's loom– all the way to three different versions of the kami slaying Yamata no Orochi, one of which Kita has contributed.

Izuna flicks through the designs very carefully, going back to her pattern of the death of the eight-headed dragon three times –maybe he likes how the dragon's severed heads wind down the sleeves?– but settles on the simplest full-body portrait. It doesn't even have storm clouds or roiling waves in the background. Given how often she repairs Izuna's coat, she could probably add to that over time if she really wanted to.

"This one."

Kita eyeballs him. "You offend my artistic integrity," she informs him flatly.

"Look, when we're not constantly fighting the Senju anymore I'll _personally_ pay for a fancier coat," Izuna bargains, "but this isn't the time."

"I'll hold you to that. What colour do you want the rest of the lining to be?"

Izuna shrugs. "Blue? Grey? Something dull anyway."

Damasked or watered grey silk _could_ substitute for storm clouds. Kind of. "Fine, go put your armour on so I can measure you. Wait, does that need adjusting too?"

"I got my armour adjusted _months_ ago, Kita-chan!"

Kita glares at him. "And you didn't think to request the same for your coat?"

Izuna shrugs, eyes glinting. "Whoops?"

Kita throws a cushion at him. It bounces off his shoulder. "Take that coat off and leave it here," she tells him, "then go dress for your fitting."

"What's going to happen to _this_ coat?" Izuna asks, stripping out of it.

Kita eyes the many, many repairs, both to the outer layer and the patchwork lining, remembering all the times she's had to take it apart to patch the canvas core. "Dismantled for rags I suspect; it's pretty much had it. But not until I've got your new coat finished, which shouldn't take me very many days." Really, that pattern is almost _insultingly_ easy.

"You're cute when you're huffy, Kita-chan," the _brat_ of a seventeen-year-old tells her cheerfully as he darts out through the shōji towards the genkan. Kita is going to stab him with pins as many times as she can feasibly get away with during his fitting. The armour will make that a bit tricky but it doesn't protect everything.

* * *

It's Kita's birthday today and Madara got dragged out of bed at some painfully early hour by Father, on the basis that they need to test whether Tobirama can sense people moving around when he's sleeping. It turns out that yes, Tobirama can _–great–_ and based on how bleary-eyed the Senju are and how Butsuma's teeth are grinding almost audibly, Father is probably going to do this again. Or possibly start waking them up for feints, just so as to wear Tobirama down. If half the times they leave the compound they just turn around again and go back to bed and _keep doing it_ in the middle of the night, Butsuma is going to get sick of his son waking him up and give different orders.

He got a nap in around midday, but he wants to go _home_ and he _can't_ because Hashirama is lurking behind the lines on the Senju side and while nobody is attacking right now, that's not going to last.

It doesn't last. Night has long since fallen again before Madara is allowed to stumble home. He's exhausted and hungry and has dead leaves in his hair. He kicks off his sandals in the genkan, frowns when he can't see his slippers anywhere and just walks in barefoot. He must have left them by his bed this morning.

"Madara?"

Oh, that's why no slippers; he's at Hikaku's. Kita gets up from beside the iori, setting her embroidery aside –another coat lining?– and gently leads him into a side room.

"Here, start changing; I'll fetch a stand for your armour."

Madara strips off his weapons and lays them down on the low chest, hangs his coat over the corner of the upright cabinet and starts fumbling with his chest plate. There's some bumping sounds overhead, then Kita is in the room again with a proper armour and weaponry stand cradled in her arms. Madara helps her assemble it, then strips down to his padded winter long johns and undershirt, adding his weapons to the rack after his armour is all properly hung up. He's so tired.

Kita walks back in –when did she leave?– with a bowl of warm water and a towel. Yes. He should wash; he _wants_ to wash, at least a quick rinse-over so he doesn't smell so bad. Kita walks out as he takes off his undershirt and walks back in a few minutes later with a nemaki nightshirt, which she dresses him in as he dries his hands and face, then once she's tied the belt he moves onto his feet and the floor, leaving his clothes and warm under-layers in a pile by the shōji along with the towel.

"Sit down so I can brush your hair."

Madara sits. He can feel Kita's knees against his back and her hands in his hair; she's using one of her three-pronged tortoiseshell hairpins, which have wider-spaced teeth than a comb would. His hair _always_ tangles and he didn't get a chance to brush it this morning, so it must be a mess. He thought growing it out would help but so far it's just made it messier.

He's so tired and he knows he's got bruises from Hashirama's stupid trees, but Kita is gently untangling his hair without pulling too hard and it's just so _nice_ to sit with her, to feel her chakra against his…

Madara wakes up, realises before even opening his eyes that the body in the bed with him is Kita –Izuna doesn't smell this nice– and decides that right now he doesn't care. Kita's sixteen now, more than old enough to have found out about sex and desire, and the body in his arms very _definitely_ has curves so if she had him undress in her bedroom and dragged him into her bed after he nodded off then evidently she's decided she's comfortable with it. They're betrothed; it was always going to happen sooner or later.

… has she _braided_ his hair? She always braids her own hair before going to bed. Is it to stop it all from tangling? If so, he's got to start doing that.

Later. Right now it's dark, the bed is warm and he's still too tired to care that he's hungry.

* * *

Izuna arrives as Kita is serving breakfast, carrying his own bowl of chazuke cradled against his chest. The irregular hours the Outguard are suffering through means meal quality has dropped, since proper meals have to be prepared in advance. Kita is currently working on refrigeration and reheating seals, but the current situation is that the Outguard's best and most filling meals arrive to them in bento at the fallback points behind the front lines. Breakfast is generally previously cooked rice with tea or stock tipped over it to reheat it: quick, warm, portable and –most importantly– easily assembled by Outguard members themselves from previously prepared ingredients.

Surprisingly few of the clan's warriors are capable of preparing anything more complicated than rice balls and tea, despite all of them being able to identify edible greens and mushrooms in the wild.

Kita has made katemishi, a mixed grain and vegetable porridge, because despite being peasant food it is warm and filling and easy to vary on a daily basis so that the younger children don't complain. Today's has rice, millet, pickled daikon, winter squash, sesame seeds and wakame in and is garnished with fish flakes; Madara is already on his second serving.

"How do you walk into the _wrong house_ , brother?" Izuna complains, flopping onto a cushion and scooting as close to the iori as can be achieved without setting his trousers on fire. "We've lived in the hall all our lives!"

Madara barely glances up from the food he is shovelling into his mouth, but shifts so as to lean into Izuna's shoulder. Izuna shakes his head but pulls chopsticks out of his sleeve so he can dig into his own food.

Kita offers him fish flakes, which are gratefully accepted with enthusiastic nodding; Izuna has his mouth full.

"Still, how did you not _notice_?" Izuna demands later, after everyone has eaten their fill and Kita has scooped the remainder into bowls for Hidaka to run over to the Outguard assembly point for the clansmen on watch duty. "The buildings don't even look the same!" He's leaning into Madara though, so Kita knows the argument isn't serious.

"I was _tired_ ," Madara grumbles. "And it's not like it _mattered_. Kita got Ojisan's field armour rack out for me and some of his nightwear."

"Oh so it's _Kita_ now?" Izuna asks slyly, eyeing her across the iori as she heats water to wash the bowls. "Yobisute? Well she _is_ sixteen, I suppose it was bound to happen. I was still expecting you to take things mo–"

Madara grabs his brother by the hair and grinds his face into the tatami. "We are _not_ doing _that_! It was just _sleeping_!" Izuna retaliates and it turns into a wrestling match; Kita keeps an eye on them, but the fight is fairly half-hearted.

"Well you did look dead on your feet when you left the meeting point," Izuna concedes, catching his brother in a headlock, "so it's probably for the best. You might have fallen asleep halfway throu–"

"Shut _up_!" And over they go again, Madara now attempting to smother his younger brother with a cushion.

Benten giggles, watching avidly over the dishes she is drying as she kneels beside Kita. She's five now and fully participant in all the daily chores; the rice Izuna is eating was supervised by her throughout the cooking phase last night, just before Kita tucked her up in bed. Getting to see her much-idolised cousin eat _her_ cooking is an unexpected treat; Izuna is the family favourite because he both smiles and talks more than Madara does.

Kita's glad to see Madara and Izuna messing around. There have been days –days that are steadily becoming more frequent– when Izuna just mutters bile and Madara slumps silently, unable to muster the energy to combat his younger brother's venom.

Those are the days when Kita takes it upon herself to banter back, which is actually exhausting but being argued with energises Izuna sufficiently to prod him into stomping off out of the house to complain to his friends about how terrible all her ideas are, _especially_ when she manages to point out a logical fallacy in his reasoning. Kita then gets to lean into her betrothed and be silently comforting as she mends, embroiders, paints or practices koto, enjoying how his chakra gradually settles in her presence.

She's far better at koto these days, but she still doesn't enjoy playing scales. Actual tunes are so much less mind-numbing. She has also finally learned all her kanji, although she is still expected to practice her calligraphy, and her education into clan history remains ongoing; there's _centuries_ of material there. Her tea ceremony is also a work in progress; knowing what to do does not make her performance any smoother, so practice continues. Kita sometimes struggles to reconcile the hypocrisy of Ohabari-oba and Tajima-sama recognising that penalising her for writing with her left hand is ridiculous, yet still expecting her to perform tea ceremony right-handed.

The fight eventually ends with Hikaku reminding Izuna that he has watch duty at dawn, prompting the seventeen-year-old to dash off in search of his armour. He's wearing his new coat now –it really didn't take her any time at all to sew– and she at least managed to put enough care and detail into the outside that most people will never realise how basic and dashed-off the lining is. Well, despite being plain she _did_ manage to quilt the grey silk background in cloud shapes, so it's not _entirely_ boring. Given how regularly she's patching Izuna's coat, she can probably add a few embellishments here and there, so long as she isn't too obvious about it. Better to avoid the sleeves though; they're the most regular target.

Madara lies where his brother left him, sprawled on his back across the tatami and studiously avoiding eye-contact. His control over his chakra presence has really shot up lately, so Kita can really only guess at his mood. She suspects he's embarrassed.

"I'm not actually interested in any of _that_ yet," she says as she hands Benten the bowl of used washing up water for the five-year-old to carefully carry outside and pour through a sieve over the drain that meanders discreetly through the shrubbery. The contents of the sieve will then go in the slop bucket, which will be collected by whoever is feeding the pigs today. "And I trust you to respect that."

Madara sits up again and carefully straightens the tatami, moving the cushions back to where they'd started.

"I also don't mind you starting the night here rather than just wandering over because you're too tired to notice you're doing it," Kita adds, because it's the truth. "It's nice having somebody to snuggle with."

Her betrothed ducks his head, hair sliding forwards over his face. His ears are visible though and ever so slightly pink. "I'll remember," he promises huskily.

He does remember. He ends up staying over a few nights a week, although sometimes he gets called out in the middle of the night. Kita swiftly learns to ignore that though; if she needed to be awake, he'd tell her.

Shortly after Izuna's birthday in February Tajima-sama informs Kita that she is now old enough to be moved into the clan hall. In her own bedroom, of course; she won't be sharing a room with Madara until they are actually married. Kita suspects this is purely so that Tajima doesn't need to leave the hall to find his son when he's trying to arrange a night raid on the Senju forces.

Kita would be more worried about leaving Hikaku's brothers alone –Hijiri has regular Outguard training now he's fourteen but Hidaka is only six– had the seventeen-year-old not recently fallen head-over-heels in love with one of Yumiori-oba's apprentices. Yori is also seventeen, delightfully honest, shockingly well-adjusted and utterly _gleeful_ at the prospect of being able to move in with her sweetheart. Also very likely to beg her parents for an early coming-of-age, so she can marry him properly rather than simply being his lover; not that not being married _yet_ will in any way to dissuade Yori from having sex with Hikaku.

Yori knows what she wants and intends to get it. Kita is willing to enable this, but is going to keep Benten. She's been raising the little girl from when she was eighteen months old and is the only mother the five-year-old remembers; breaking that commitment would be a betrayal.

The Uchiha understand the importance of emotional bonds, so Tajima-sama will only complain if Benten gets underfoot. Little girls are invisible to clan heads until they start causing trouble.

Without big brothers to snuggle with, Benten is likely to end up in Kita's bed. Which honestly could be part of Tajima-sama's latest evil scheme; Madara is very private and while sex in your betrothed's room _is_ private, it's _not_ private if there's a five-year-old asleep in the bed as well. What if Benten wakes up?

Sneaky and typical of him; Kita instantly starts plotting out secrecy seals. Her bento-box and refrigeration seals are a smash hit with the clan; everybody likes hot lunches and longer-lasting fresh fish. Tajima-sama is even vaguely in favour of selling them. Well, charging a premium for the seals to be applied to some civilian craftsman's work, at least, since mass-production of lacquered bamboo lunchboxes would be a waste of clan resources.

Madara's response to stumbling in from a mission and finding her in _his_ dining room is really quite delightful, and Benten's glee at living in the clan hall helps soften the blow of having to dress in outdoor clothes in order to spend time with her siblings.

It hurts a little that Kita knows more about Benten than Jōnen and little Tekari. It also hurts when Tateshima brings eight-year-old Midori to the hall's kitchen door to ask for cooking lessons on her behalf. Is Mama really so busy with teaching Naka and indulging her youngest son that her other daughters have given up on her completely? Or is that, since Midori has no interest in the family craft, she has been left to find her own way rather than Mama asking around and arranging a suitable apprenticeship? It _was_ Grandma who picked up on Tateshina's talent, not Mama asking her to consider it.

By March Midori has also moved into the clan hall and Kita has acquired a separate futon for her and Benten, moving them into a little room that had previously been used to store all kinds of childhood odds and ends which Kita moves into the loft. Midori continues caring for Auntie Tsuyu's chickens and their parents' vegetable garden, although she does add caring for the ornamental garden around the clan hall to her duties. Kita isn't sure Mama's even noticed.

It _really_ hurts when parents prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that they too are human and fallible.

* * *

The war with the Senju slows down as missions start coming in again, but it doesn't really _stop._ Father has to keep the border fully fortified, which means fewer missions can be accepted as the Uchiha can't spare the manpower. Some of those missions get picked up by Homeguard members –a few here, a few there, mostly women who retired to have children and can afford to leave those now-older children with sisters or mothers for a few days– but Madara suspects that the projected drop in income is what prompts his father to decide to market Kita's sealing skills. Despite the clan's last two years' income each being higher than it has been in three decades _regardless_.

To be fair, he doesn't do it _directly_. Rather, he writes to a few longstanding Uchiha allies, most of whom are civilian but including a few shinobi clans they are on neutral terms with, and informs them that the Uchiha have seals against lightning strikes, leaking roofs, wood rot and vermin depredation. Nothing that offers an obvious military advantage, but all things that cost in time and resources; the flurry of offers –extremely _generous_ offers– that are brought back in short order make it clear that yes, all their allies _are_ prepared to dig deep into their pockets for such things.

Especially the Akimichi. _They_ are offering ten years of spice deliveries on top of a cash fee upfront per building. Father is _definitely_ taking them up on that, no matter _how_ many storehouses end up needing to be sealed. This is easily decades –if not centuries– of spice deliveries, a vast range of spices they will not have to pay for. _Insanely_ generous is what their offer is, which says a lot about how many losses having these seals will prevent them from suffering.

Father is however presenting Sannosawa-sensei as the clan's sealing specialist, for various reasons. For one, he is a respected scholar and fits the generally accepted image most civilians have for sealing masters. For another, he's been working alongside Kita for long enough that he does in fact _understand_ her seals, so much so that he can reproduce them with only a minor loss of quality and stability.

More pragmatically, if everybody thinks Sannosawa-sensei is the seal master, if –or more realistically, _when_ – he gets assassinated by Senju the Uchiha still have both their seals and their seal master. Sannosawa-sensei is fully on board with the risks, as is his apprentice Yamizo who is slightly better at drawing the seals despite understanding their inner workings rather less. They, more than anybody else in the clan, truly _understand_ how valuable Kita's seals are, how much more stable and prosperous they have made the Uchiha as a whole.

Kita won't even be on those missions as herself; Father has ordered her to wear working dress, bind her chest, hide her hair down the back of her shirt and pretend to be Sannosawa-sensei's errand boy.

If he was expecting Kita to be offended, he was disappointed. Kita's only question is whether they'll be willing to eat her little sister's cooking while she is away. Which yes, _is_ a valid question, but Midori-chan's cooking while basic is warm, filling and of consistent quality.

Madara would like _very much_ to be bodyguard on those missions, but Father has assigned Akaishi and Hikaku that job. Madara has to stay closer to home on lower-stakes missions, so he can be called away at a moment's notice without compromising the clan's alliances should the Senju attack in force.

He really hopes Kita doesn't accidentally run into Hashirama or Tobirama on any of her missions. It's bad enough that Izuna has Mangekyō too now; he doesn't want to find out what will happen when Kita finally comes face to face with the horrors of war. The Uchiha have a saying about those clansmen who are most good-natured, which is that the steadiest flame burns the hottest.

Kita is possibly the most good-natured Uchiha Madara has _ever_ met. She also has more than enough chakra now that she could activate her sharingan –if she has it– without accidentally killing herself an hour later from over-exertion. Combined with her seals –and the way she casually defied Father over mass-producing those knockout seals, 'for personal defence, so I am not submitting them for approval' _indeed_ – he gets the feeling that her response to genuinely believing she is going to die would probably be very, very… let's say _visceral_.

The clan has another saying, that all Uchiha have the same reserves of innate drama at their disposal; some merely save it all for special occasions. And Madara has never seen his betrothed use more than the faintest garnish of drama for _anything_.

The first two sealing missions go off without a hitch; Father puts the Akimichi at the top of the queue due to the generosity of their offer, then sends letters to everybody else to let them know that their offers are 'being considered.' Which is political-speak for 'this is your opportunity to make a better offer;' everybody of course _does_ make better offers, because mundane sealing applications are rarer than chicken teeth.

Madara's not sure why Kita uses that comparison. It does at least sound amusing; Izuna asked why not birds' teeth generally and had been horrified to learn that geese _do_ , in fact, have teeth. As do swans.

 _Throat teeth_.

Shudder.

The third sealing mission is the one Akaishi comes back from in an umbrella bag and Hikaku comes back from with Mangekyō. Yatagarasu Mangekyō in fact, not Amaterasu, which is a real surprise; not entirely implausible, since their shared grandmother was Yatagarasu lineage, but still surprising. It is, again, not exactly a fair trade. Especially not when Father's response to losing his right hand is to promote Hikaku to Akaishi's position and give him permission to marry Yori-san.

Hikaku's half a year younger than Izuna and not eighteen yet. He doesn't need this kind of pressure on him, but he's also the new head of the Yatagarasu branch and if he _doesn't_ step up and marry, there will be more pressure on his younger siblings. Well, more pressure than there abruptly is already. Hikaku being Yatagarasu _really_ upsets the political status quo, which hasn't yet recovered from Taka becoming Yomotsushikome Head. It does mean that Father keeps Hikaku closer to home now though; on the next sealing mission Father sends out Tsuyoshi and Taka to watch over Kita.

Everybody comes home from the next four sealing missions with only minimal injuries, by which point it's the height of summer and there's a lull in business. Kita of course has her silk cocoons to harvest at this point –Benten and Midori have been looking after the caterpillars for her and Madara's done some tree climbing for fresh leaves on request, as has Izuna– and the fact that it's also too hot to fight for six weeks straight prompts Father to arrange Hikaku's wedding.

Madara thinks it's very encouraging how very in love his cousin is with Yori-san, and how very clear it is that she loves him back just as much. He's not sure _how_ Kita got that complicated Yatagarasu patchwork coat finished in time –has she been stitching it on the road?!– but she did and Hikaku looks very fierce and confident in it.

Well, he does if you don't know that the expression on his face is in fact rampant nerves. Hikaku has always been a very conscientious older brother to his siblings, but his parents' deaths and joining the Outguard young really haven't helped lessen his tendency towards worrying.

Yori-san balances him there; she barely worries at all. Not because she doesn't think, but because she seems to move directly from thought into action and rarely deigns to consider that she may not be completely successful in all her endeavours. She isn't universally successful, but she does always learn from her mistakes.

Madara was _not_ expecting Kita to be wearing a black furisode decorated with her lineage's patron for the ceremony. It looks completely stunning on her and draws his attention to the fact that she is now only slightly shorter than Izuna.

She's always been _small_ before. When did this happen? How did he miss it? Yes, she's been away a lot this year, but has he really been paying _that little_ attention?

It doesn't occur to Madara until after the wedding that Hikaku and Yori-san are two years younger than he is and only a year older than Kita. That Father could order _him_ to marry next year is… not a good thought. Yes, he _does_ want to marry Kita, but he wants it to be in his own time. Her own time. Yori-san was already agitating to marry Hikaku and for Father to have given Hikaku permission, he had probably asked already as well, but that's not how Madara's relationship with Kita is. They're not in a hurry and the contract said when Kita is twenty, which is more than three years off.

Madara doesn't want to rush this. Father always said that haste was the enemy of quality when he was teaching Madara the sword when he was little, so why would that change now he's almost an adult himself? Besides, Kita is currently raising her own younger sister and little Benten and already living in the clan hall, so a marriage ceremony would just meant that she would be expected to have sex with him.

He's _not_ going to pressure Kita to have sex with him. She's made it clear that she's not even _interested_ yet. He's _not_ going to marry Kita any time soon and Father _can't make him_.

* * *

The Uchiha clan might currently have more money and goods at its collective disposal –and at the disposal of each individual member–than ever before in living memory, but it's a mess. Yes, part of that _is_ that they've now been at war with the Senju for seventeen months straight and only just got a break from the constant fighting, but the Outguard are honestly as well-organised as ever. What's straining them is injury and depleted numbers, both of which happen regularly –going by the records, some years are _very_ bad years but it hasn't got quite _that_ bad yet– and will change in time.

The clan's craftspeople are also doing fairly well: war-related crafts have enough raw materials to keep up with the Outguard's needs –if not always enough time, which means bringing in more apprentices– and the more peaceful crafts have the funds for more materials and access to a wider market, so are keeping busy as well and bringing more money into the clan. The issue is on the political and social side and the people making most of a fuss about it are well-off wives with time on their hands and lineage elders, who don't have anything else to do except complain and make everybody's life difficult.

Elders also have connections and vast social power, which makes everything so much harder. As does Ohabari-oba being pregnant again; Kita doesn't begrudge it, but the older woman is currently suffering morning sickness, so isn't quite up to her usual ferocious standard. Also, Minakata is teething.

The whole clan is creaking at the roots and Kita can recognise that she has contributed to this. Entirely well-meaningly –and she does not regret her actions in the slightest– but human nature is what it is and nobody likes change, especially not when it comes with a perceived fall in status and privilege.

The problem is twofold: firstly, the upheaval to internal precedence shifting twice in two years due to individuals from two separate lineages manifesting Mangekyō, and secondly –but in many ways more pervasively– the social shifts prompted by the widows' silk cooperative.

Kita did in fact foresee many of the changes associated with the silk cooperative; she'd just seen them as positive. It's a _good_ thing that the clan's widows are no longer dependent on close relatives and the clan coffers for the survival of their children. It's a _good_ thing that they can buy new clothes for their children, more meat to eat and can pay for repairs to their homes. They're contributing to the clan now, which reduces the Uchiha's dependence on mercenary work and helps balance the books against the pressing costs of war.

The problem is that all those desperate widows are no longer available to cook and clean and garden for a pittance –they have their silk and can afford a little more pride– so a minority of more affluent clan members who don't want to do their own chores have to offer more money if they want those jobs done. Or pay less, and have somebody less skilled –probably a pre-teen or a retired Outguard warrior who is also physically less able– do the work more slowly.

Yes, it's good that the clan is wealthier now in a general sense and those few handfuls of affluent ladies –and it _is_ mostly older wives whose sons are not married yet or whose daughters-in-law have crafts or professions of their own– certainly enjoy being able to wear silk, but they are also _very_ bitter about being inconvenienced by that affluence and secretly feel that the widows don't _deserve_ the prestige and status that they are gaining with their work. Surely the silkworms should be in more appropriate hands? Entrusted to individuals with more leadership experience?

Tajima-sama loves those arguments, because they have absolutely nothing to do with him as Outguard Head and the elders are all so busy being complained at about the shift in the status quo that he has free range to do as he pleases elsewhere.

The real problem is more insidiously cultural: to be a widow is to be a burden, on your father or your brother or your son, and a widow with young children and no father-in-law is in a very precarious position indeed. The clan has always provided for them –sons of widows nearly always end up in the Outguard and many daughters do too– but only just: staple foods, second-hand and much-mended clothes, kanji lessons and not much more. No spending money for toys and sweets, no extra ink for practicing calligraphy at home, no support or connections for apprenticeships and no inheritance of land, not when the clan supports an adult brother over an underage son to hold a farm or a workshop. The Uchiha simply can't _afford_ to let fields lie fallow or productivity fall, and with everybody being related, who inherits physical property can be changed at the order of the Homeguard Head if they feel said property is being mismanaged.

Brothers-in-law with wives and sons of their own to feed are quick to challenge a widow's hold on her husband's property, especially if her sons are too young to do the work themselves. A widow's oldest son may well be apprenticed into the family craft by his uncle –provided there _is_ a family craft– but that is only one child when most mothers have four or more young mouths to feed.

Silkworms mean those widows have work, have purchasing power and community and pride in their achievements. Their daughters are learning useful skills and networking, making them more marriageable, and there is money to sponsor their sons into apprenticeships or persuade a higher-ranking clansman to offer extra warrior training. The clan as a whole is less precariously balanced and more resilient, but those individuals with the loudest voices, who are used to being listened to, are only seeing the cheap labour they have lost.

In a related note, Kita has recently mastered killing intent. Well, judgemental intent; being able to project, 'I am disappointed by your small-mindedness' is much more helpful than directly threatening people over tea. Besides, everybody knows she won't _really_ kill them, but being able to wordlessly broadcast that you feel somebody is putting their own comfort over the wellbeing of the clan is very helpful.

Grandpa Yamasachi, sitting in on one such meeting, glared thunderously at one such irate lady when Kita pointed out that she was essentially complaining about no longer being able to exploit their less fortunate relatives and underpay them for their labour; evidently nobody has ever phrased it quite like that in his hearing before. Similar complaints soon cease to make it to her ears thereafter; Kita suspects the rest of the elders have taken to quoting her and word has got around. Of course, that doesn't mean the problem has gone _away_ yet. Bruised egos and offended dignity take time to subside, and nobody likes having it pointed out that they were behaving in a manner unworthy of an Uchiha.

It's one less thing to take up Kita's time though, which is a tremendous relief. The political upheaval is a nightmare enough to wrestle with and it's not the only thing on her plate right now.

No, her current problem is far more urgent: the clan's supply of bandages with seals on is running low and she doesn't have _any_ thread she has spun herself that isn't silk.

"You haven't taught _anybody_ to do this yet, seriously?"

Kita glares at Yori over the table as she copies that long-ago seal she'd used to spin chakra into cotton thread. It works just as well on hemp, but it's slow. She has six other seals with thread hanks sitting on them scattered around the room, charging.

Yori is good at embroidery, has solid chakra reserves, got the chakra spinning seal to work first time and is Yumiori-oba's senior apprentice; she's the perfect person to teach stitched seals to, considering most of the stitched seals are health related. Of course she's also married to Hikaku and now the matriarch of the Yatagarasu lineage, but Yori is refreshingly down-to-earth and doesn't actually care about that. Which may well cause problems with Hikaku's second cousins later if they decide she is 'neglecting her responsibilities,' but right now it's a good thing because the two of them are only very recently eighteen and Mangekyō or not, it is preferred that a lineage head is twenty before they take control of their duties and responsibilities. The current head can oversee matters until then and tutor Hikaku in his very limited free time.

"It should have been the first thing you did, really; they're indispensable in the field now, Auntie says many more warriors come back these days and vanishingly few of them develop blood poisoning along the way. Seal bandages are in the standard Outguard pharmacy kit, even! We save every single one and boil them to death in between uses, but they're definitely getting threadbare even if the sealing side still works fine. Auntie's having to layer them with new bandages these days, as most of them have been mended multiple times. Without those sterilisation seals they'd have needed replacing _years_ ago."

How Yori can just _keep talking_ while watching Kita's hands as she stitches the sterilisation seal into the weave of a scrap of bandage with indigo silk –as a demonstration piece, so the seal stands out– and not lose focus? It boggles the mind. It also makes it tricky for Kita to keep the seal's purpose in mind, but she's made so _many_ of these she barely needs the thought exercise to assist her in shaping her chakra anymore. She knows what this seal feels like.

Yori's eyes briefly glimmer scarlet, but it fades before Kita can be sure it was more than a trick of the light. Then she picks up another bandage scrap and a length of indigo hemp thread off her own charging seal; it's only been on it for a few hours, not overnight, but it's enough for practicing with.

She gets the shape wrong on her first attempt, so Kita demonstrates again, adding an explanation for the specific part Yori got wrong. It's possibly a stitch she's not seen before; Kita's not sure how regular clanswomen do embroidery, if many or indeed any of them do. She uses the stitches and techniques Mama taught her, which are very possibly trade secrets.

Yori's eyes are _definitely_ red this time, one tomoe wobbling determinedly around her pupil in each. Kita doesn't comment; it can wait until _after_ Yori gets the seal right. Which of course she will, now she's used the sharingan to take in every single detail; sure enough, Yori's second attempt is perfect.

But a dud, since Kita hasn't explained the chakra focusing part yet; that's step two. The seal _has_ to be perfect, you _have_ to be able to stitch the seal perfectly without really thinking about it, before you start stitching active ones. Otherwise mistakes lead to burnt thread and disappointment.

"Now stitch ten of those," Kita tells her. "It has to be instinctive and effortless before you start adding intent to your seals, otherwise that moment of 'what do I do next' interrupts your focus and the chakra doesn't take."

"So I need to sew them until I'm bored of sewing them and barely have to look down anymore; I can do that." Yori sighs, eyeing the neat thumbnail-sized seal in the corner of her bandage scrap, which is large enough to fit another fifty on, provided they're closely grouped. "So why teach me when I know for a fact that if the elders knew you'd finally decided to accept students they'd all be pushing their favourite grandchildren at you? Not that I'm _not_ my Ruri-bā's favourite, of course," she glances up, grinning wickedly, "but this seems remarkably sedate all things considered."

"I am specifically teaching you my medical seals," Kita says, shuffling over to the slightly modified spinning seal to test the integrity of the short length of thread coiled on top of it. Speeding up the process is all very well, but could so easily go wrong; a snapped thread means a ruined seal. "You are Yumiori-oba's apprentice; healing is your remit. Once I have taught you, _you_ will be teaching whoever else you can get hold of to take up the duty of bandage sealing full-time." The thread snaps; well there goes that hope.

"Oh, so picking politically-appropriate apprentices is suddenly _my_ problem? Sneaky. You realise I'm probably going to be grabbing variously distant cousins with the most sewing experience, which invariably means the ones most used to mending their own clothes?" In other words, the poor ones. Possibly the bastard daughters certain warriors are pretending they don't have as well.

"Less politically fraught," Kita points out, balling up the ruined thread and tearing the failed seal in half, "and it's _only_ the medical seals anyway; making bandages is already women's work; low-grade women's work at that. That said low-grade work now involves chakra techniques, embroidery and seals probably isn't going to win anybody over; it's still mindless drudge work, just more tiring."

"Since it uses chakra," Yori agrees thoughtfully, needle dancing between her fingers. "Once I've got a few girls able to make the seals, could you teach them to spin chakra into thread directly? The chakra-spinning seals are all very well, but you said thread infused with chakra as it's made holds it indefinitely and that's far more useful in a pinch. We just have to take care to requisition a portion of the harvest on the pharmacy's behalf and make sure we have a good reserve. And virgin thread to infuse in case of emergencies, of course, but personal thread means being able to stitch onto more than just bandages." She glances up to meet Kita's eyes. "Don't think I haven't notice how you and your sisters never get sick, Kita-chan."

"The sharingan eye seal is potentially harmful to the unborn in the womb," Kita says calmly, "so not suitable for women trying to conceive."

Yori grins. "All the better! I don't _want_ to get pregnant just yet; we're both too young and I've not finished my apprenticeship and seriously, war's a _terrible_ time to be expecting. I'm already taking herbs to that effect; the seal would just be security. I don't want to catch something off a patient and take it home to my husband, do I?"

"Let's see you get this one to work first." The sharingan eye seal is far harder to explain to somebody who doesn't really know how the immune system works. She is going to have to start with that, so that Yori can infuse her chakra right when making the seal and not create strange and potentially lethal side-effects.

Yori swears Kita to secrecy over her sharingan manifesting –"everybody will _fuss_ and I've got work to do! Visual memorisation isn't enough in pharmacy _or_ sealing anyway"– and it takes her a fortnight to successfully tune her chakra right to stitch a working sterilisation seal. By then Kita is _dreaming_ about stitching seals into bandages, so she is happy to be able to halve her own workload. She does manage to explain enough of the basics of the immune system to Yori that she grasps the sharingan metaphor almost immediately; that seal only takes her five days to fully master.

Kita then writes her a fancy certification on a small washi scroll, stamps it with her personal hanko, invites Yori to formal tea and presents it to her in front of Izuna, who is the only male member of the Amaterasu lineage on clan grounds at the time. Yori squeals, abruptly realises her faux pas and apologises frantically, but Izuna is cackling and Kita really doesn't care. The tea ceremony collapses rather than ending formally, with Yori bouncing home hugging her certificate of competence in healing fūinjutsu –which those seals technically count as– Izuna falling asleep on the tatami –she's not surprised, he must be exhausted now the fighting has ramped up again– and Kita herself clearing up quietly so as not to disturb Izuna.

That was the most fun she's _ever_ had at a tea ceremony, which is a clue she should probably do more of them with people she actually _likes._

Of course, it's not going to be just the bandages that need maintaining; she needs to teach Midori to spin, stitch and embroider. She doesn't need to be perfect at it or have the patience for patchworking entire coats; enough skill to renew the seals in the canvas coat cores and sew seams is more than enough to make her indispensible to the clan, and will leave her plenty of time for her beloved gardening.

It turns out Mama was partly distracted due to being pregnant again –Tekari isn't even eighteen months old yet and already has a younger sibling– and the baby girl born ten days ago has been named Kinu. Kita just hopes Mama doesn't neglect Kinu-chan in favour of her older brothers; it was never obvious when she was little, but since Jōnen was born it's become increasingly clear that Mama has always wanted boys.

If it comes to it, Kita is sure Grandma will give Mama a good telling off for neglecting the baby; it's never really been a secret that Grandma likes little girls best.

* * *

The first day of autumn brings a letter from the capital 'requesting' the Uchiha clan head and his immediate family attend on the daimyo for autumn leaf viewing in late October, and to attend the Shichi-go-san festival in November. There is the implication that other ninja clans have been invited, which is a thinly-veiled order to arrange a truce with the Senju as they too will be there. Father is displeased, but they cannot afford to antagonise the daimyo so a letter is written offering the Senju a ceasefire from the moment of agreement to Hanamatsuri in April.

It is better to be generous, Father explains, and to watch carefully; that way the Senju lose face if they insist on a shorter truce and the clan will not be taken unaware if they violate the terms offered.

It is evident the Senju have also received such a letter today; they arrive at the border at almost exactly the same moment, Hashirama obviously struggling to maintain his composure at the possibility of peace no matter how temporary. Madara doesn't meet his eyes, studying Tobirama instead; since the conversation with Kita that revealed to him how little value Hashirama actually places on their friendship, he has caught himself wondering what his friend's relationship with his own brother is like. Hashirama didn't have all that many nice things to say about his brother back when they were children –he mostly complained about said unnamed sibling spending all his time learning from his father and parroting the man's views– and Madara wonders if that's changed.

Izuna is too busy glaring hatefully at his rival to notice Madara's attention on the same person; Hashirama notices though and moves a little closer to his brother.

So he does care. That Madara immediately wonders how _much_ Hashirama cares is bitter but not unexpected; the two Senju brothers have never seemed particularly close, so there is clearly a limit to Hashirama's concern.

Butsuma is only offering peace until Risshun, but appearing ungracious in response to the daimyo's decree is most unwise so there is a pause for the Senju treaty to be re-written, both scrolls are signed and formally exchanged. Madara is just glad both their fathers are here; Hashirama would probably jump him otherwise.

He is going to have to spend most of a month in the capital, wearing his best clothes and not getting into fights, and Kita is going to be there too. He is going to have to introduce _Kita_ to _Hashirama_ , and probably have Uzumaki Mito introduced to him in return. Never mind the however-many _other_ noble clans and their heirs who are likely to be present; the Aburame and the Akimichi for certain and probably the Hyūga as well.

Madara is sure this will be a complete headache, but at least he will have his father to guide him, Izuna to back him up and Kita to talk things out with. It is very unlikely that the Senju will attempt anything _too_ untoward right under the daimyo's nose.

* * *

All the mess caused by recent changes and reversals in the prominence of the various Uchiha lineages comes to a head as Tajima-sama tries to hammer out who will be accompanying his immediate family to the capital. They cannot go alone –it would be disrespectful– but taking too large an entourage would imply cowardice. There is also the issue of image: taking elders rather than warriors implies they have faith in the daimyo's authority to keep the peace, but also limits the group's mobility and –perhaps more awkwardly– places significant favour upon the elder or elders chosen.

It's probably going to take several days of loud arguing to sort this out; Kita is grateful they aren't expected in the capital for a fortnight. She of course is going; there was a private letter to her from the daimyo's wife included with the official invitation, 'suggesting' she bring more tenran to show off at court. Kita has a simple kimono of her own creation this year, damasked with bush clover. She has also given Madara a suitably masculine narrow obi of peace silk for his last birthday, which will look good with his formal indigo kimono and hakama.

Spinning and weaving are both very soothing and a pleasant change from embroidering seal after seal after seal into things. She needs more apprentices. Perhaps she should ask around in the widows' cooperative first? Her little sisters and Benten are all lacking the prerequisite skills –never mind the chakra requirements– so she can't really involve them until they're older.

The letter also implies that the daimyo's wife may well demand she stay on at court for longer, maybe even until the plum blossoms, so Kita is taking care to pack accordingly and bring suitably ladylike and innocuous things to do. Like calligraphy and embroidery; she has another wild silk obi she wants to embroider with silk moths –they have a pleasantly autumnal colour scheme, all browns and yellows with pink detailing– a plain weave kimono dyed dayflower blue and painted with climbing roses that was a gift from the widow's cooperative and will look suitably stunning over her charcoal nagajuban, that she needs to embroider Uchiha crests on for appropriate formality, and two plain obi that Grandma has made for her, one soft lilac and the other bold scarlet. Her plans for both are still vague, but she has all her threads packed so she will not have to settle.

She also has a new everyday silk kimono, a medium slate blue one with a cheeky repeated uchiwa fan print with red slats under white; none of the fans have the appropriate strict verticality required for a formal komon and the fan handles are beige not white, but it looks very cheerful with her narrow everyday indigo obi, which is printed with a repeated bamboo pattern that she has livened up by adding pink detailing to the leaves here and there.

Kita is resigned to spending even more money on kimono at some point; court is _expensive_. However she does at least have her Toyotama black furisode and her own silk-lined coat now, which is something.

Of course, stressing about her clothing is a distraction from the main issue: Kita being officially Home Head, Tajima-sama is going to demand her opinion of who to bring. Just so as to decide if he likes her ideas enough to appear to defer to her judgement, which has the added benefit of enabling him to offload onto her any resentment from people who _don't_ get picked.

The thing is, while Madara and Izuna activating Mangekyō changes absolutely nothing of the internal system of precedence between the clan's various lineages –beyond reinforcing the superiority and authority of the Amaterasu line– Taka-san completely upended everything. Not counting Madara and Izuna, it's been well over a century since _anybody_ had Mangekyō and the Yomotsushikone hasn't been seen in almost five hundred years.

Five. _Hundred._ Years.

Up until the spring before last, the Yomotsushikone lineage had been the least prominent in the entire clan, a position it has enjoyed for over three hundred of those years. The previous lineage head –the one Taka-san has summarily dethroned by virtue of seeing her lover murdered before her eyes– kept ducks for meat and farmed carp in his koi pond. He's still farming carp in that pond, in fact; Taka-san doesn't care about koi and leaving the fish there is less effort than digging another pond.

Never mind that only lineage heads are allowed to have houses with ponds in their gardens. Ponds are a lot of work.

Taka moving _up_ her lineage means that everybody else in it has moved either up or down as well depending on how closely related to her they are; the lineage connecting her to her ancestor is now the 'true' Yomotsushikome lineage rather than mere male primogeniture, and housing depends as much on precedence and prominence as it does on personal wealth. A good number of her kinsmen are a touch displeased at having to move out of their nice houses, which is only slightly soothed by being abruptly the second most important lineage in the clan. Everybody is still rather tense there, but those arguments are all internal and their elders are staying on top of them.

About a year on matters were finally starting to settle, at which point the Yatagarasu –in the form of Hikaku– kicked them down half a peg, which is mainly shocking because three out of the clan's four Mangekyō wielders are underage and the clan hasn't _had_ four Mangekyō users at one time before. Not since the clan started keeping written records, at least.

Getting kicked down half a step before they'd even managed to settle in at the top has ruffled a lot of feathers on the Yomotsushikome side and engendered a lot of smugness on the Yatagarasu side, because while they are still in the number three slot –it is first-come, first-served for precedence there– they are essentially equal in terms of prominence now, rather than a distant third coasting on the skill of a long-dead ancestor.

The big fuss on the Yatagarasu side is within the main family. Well, the _former_ main family. Everybody assumed Hikaku was Amaterasu, but if he's Yatagarasu then Niniji-sama was too and the main line passes through his and Tajima-sama's mother rather than through her older brother.

Genetics aren't a thing here yet despite bloodline clans making it clear that heritability happens equally on the maternal and paternal side. Paternal is simply assumed to be more prominent for sexist reasons; the Uchiha also believe in a kind of mystic atavism where the Mangekyō is concerned, as though the 'spirit' of the gift travels down a family line whole and unchanged, being strongest in whoever it is currently inhabiting and their immediate relatives.

Kita isn't sold, but she isn't willing to dismiss it entirely either. Chakra makes things _weird._

The Yatagarasu problem is multifaceted. Firstly, their new head was raised in another lineage, with different values and to different standards; practically, as Madara has explained to her, it means more difficulty in adapting to and using the specific Mangekyō techniques and an associated increase in side-effects if training is rushed or incomplete. Tsunimi-san, the former Yatagarasu head, is doing what he can to teach Hikaku about the family lineage he is now responsible for, but Hikaku is also Tajima-sama's deputy in the Outguard and that is already a full-time position. Hikaku is also recently eighteen, recently married –to a cadet member of the Inari lineage– and has two younger brothers to worry about.

Tsunimi-san very wisely offered to take over Hijiri and Hidaka's education, so they at least will be raised to Yatagarasu standards. Not that there's much left to do for Hijiri –he's fifteen now and a member of the Outguard, complete with a patchwork coat of his own as his brother's heir– but Hidaka is seven and suitably eager to please.

Secondly there is Benten, who will be six in a few days' time and considers Kita her mother despite calling her 'Onee-chan'. There are delicate negotiations in progress concerning Benten's education that will have to be either rushed or put on hold to account for the daimyo's expectations, and Kita suspects rushing would benefit her ward better. She can't take Benten with her to the capital, which means the girl will have to stay with her oldest brother and his wife. Yori has enough on her plate without adding a small child –which she knows perfectly well, hence her disinclination to get pregnant any time soon– which means that despite _living_ with her brother, Benten will have to spend her time elsewhere. Such as with Tsunimi's oldest daughter Chidori, who has the time and genuinely likes children.

It is a concession Kita always intended to make, but she wanted to wring more reciprocal concessions out of Elder Tamayori first; concessions that will afford Benten greater freedom. Well, maybe frankness will win the day there? If she makes it clear Benten's welfare is her priority, Tamayori-san may well bend a little more in light of the unfortunately exigent circumstances forcing her to curtail the ongoing dance of proper manners.

The third of the Yatagarasu's current sources of internal strife is their summoning contract. It's not passed down parent to child but teacher to student, but the main line do try to keep it _in_ their line. Eboshi-san is the current main summoner, his teacher –and great-uncle– having long since retired, but the main line having moved means that he is now faced with the moral dilemma of realising he needs to train either Hikaku or one of Hikaku's younger siblings as his successor.

The rest of the lineage is naturally rather upset about this, especially the two very young twin nephews who were hoping to be the clan's next crow summoners. Kita has a feeling Eboshi will try to wait until Hikaku has children, with the understanding that if he dies before then the crows will default to Hikaku himself or Hijiri. Probably Hijiri; he's actually on Eboshi's squad in the Outguard at the moment, for all he's a bit too old to be an apprentice now. The crows might accept him as an auxiliary summoner though, just to make sure the contract stays in the family.

Blending all this –which is yet to be properly talked out in full because a good chunk of each lineage is in the Outguard so are more focused on fighting the Senju than on family spats– with obeying the daimyo's summons is going to be a complete nightmare.

Kita has a few ideas of who to suggest to accompany them to the capital, but it all very much depends on how many people Tajima-sama decides to take and who is being left in charge of what. Hikaku will be left in charge of the Outguard, which means they can at least avoid taking any Yatagarasu with them; that lineage is sufficiently honoured. They should probably take Taka-san, even though Kita seriously doubts she wants to go; she's a highly capable warrior and is no less comfortable in a kimono, never mind her Mangekyō. Taking one new lineage head and leaving the other in charge of the Outguard results in them being about equally honoured, but that still leaves a further five lineages to juggle. Well, four lineages; she represents the Toyotama very well despite being considerably removed from the main line.

Four is enough for a lady-in-waiting to back up herself and Taka-san, and three men to back up Tajima-sama. They should probably take a person of no lineage as well –lineage or not, everyone is Uchiha– but Kita has no idea who or why.

Well, at least she has _half_ a plan to present to Tajima-sama when he demands her input.


	6. Chapter 6

Tajima-sama gives her several more kimono; of course he does. She's almost seventeen now, as tall as she is probably ever going to get and about to spend at least a month in the capital being constantly seen by people Tajima-sama wants to keep up appearances in front of. They are all exquisite, and again the actual kimono are not new even though the nagajuban and warmly padded under-shirts and slips are; more of his wife's wardrobe, Kita suspects. Nothing inappropriate for an unmarried woman though, so they must be what she wore when Tajima-sama was courting her, set aside for a potential future daughter.

She's mostly surprised –pleased, but surprised– that he's not pressed Madara into buying her kimono as well yet. Then again, Madara's been buying her all manner of impeccably appropriate things for birthdays and occasionally just because, so maybe Tajima-sama's leaving his son to gradually work his way up to it by himself?

Because, practically speaking, all the things Madara is giving her are things that, were she from a wealthy family and marrying _into_ the Uchiha, would be part of her trousseau. The mirror and stand, the combs and jewellery boxes, the writing box and boxes for storing paper, the incense boxes, the bowls, the clothing stand and the full-size screen… all commissioned with a common colour scheme and similar elements in the lacquered patterns without being boringly identical.

Then there are the playing cards, the books, the prints and paintings, the calligraphy scrolls he has done himself, the little packets of rare dyes, the steel needles, the bolts of fabric –not quite a kimono yet but potentially heading that way– and, of course, her couple-teacups and personal pot.

Kita has no idea what happened to Madara's mother's trousseau, since she would certainly have had one. It might well be packed away in the loft, awaiting an Amaterasu granddaughter. Naka-sama's will be set aside for when Benten marries; Tajima _-_ sama's mother's trousseau is in Ohabari-oba's possession, her being the only daughter so having the right to it. Mama doesn't really have one; Grandma probably did since Great-Grandma would have made sure, but Grandma had five daughters so her things probably got divided up, with the important symbolic items getting reused and eventually ending up scattered.

Ohabari-oba's education included making sure Kita is aware of all the things that belong in a traditional trousseau. Madara has so far provided all of the more mundane items –she can't call them inexpensive, not when he's clearly patronising a master craftsman– and the items he hasn't bought her yet rather… stand out.

A musical instrument. A tea ceremony chest and utensils. Tableware. Kimono. And, of course, the box containing a shell-matching game, which is even used in the wedding ceremony itself.

Madara is going to be twenty this winter; in three years' time Kita will have her own coming-of-age and they will be expected to set a date to marry. It feels so much closer now than it did even this time last year.

Tajima-sama did indeed ask –demand– her opinion on who to take, grilled her on why, casually filleted a few of her assumptions and then went along with most of her suggestions. Taka is not coming: she will be advising Hikaku on the running of the Outguard in Tajima-sama's absence, as her experience leading missions in the Outguard is not insignificant and neither is her grasp of strategy. It does not need to be said that Tajima-sama likely also feels it unwise to remove three of the clan's four Mangekyō users to the capital, for all that Taka rarely uses hers. Tajima-sama's point that Taka's loss is too recent and she hates the Senju too passionately to be civil is also a good one and something Kita should have considered.

Inemi-chan will come, as continuity from last time and to represent the Inari lineage, and Asami-chan of the Konjin lineage will accompany her as Kita's fellow attendant and additional security; Asami-chan is a trap-master in the Homeguard and can layer triggered genjutsu, in addition to knowing a great deal about poetry.

Tajima-sama is taking Ikazuchi of the Raiden lineage and Homusubi of the Kōjin lineage along with his brother-in-law Tsuyoshi, all of whom are longstanding members of the Outguard and personal allies. Tsuyoshi is the oldest of the three, but they are all younger than Tajima-sama and Ikazuchi isn't married at all. Homusubi has a three-year-old son and his wife is a retired Outguard colleague; their presence in the delegation honours their lineages as both are closely related to their respective lineage heads, but it remains clear that Tajima-sama is highlighting his own authority in the choices he is making.

Kita doubts anybody is actually surprised by this.

* * *

Madara is not such a fool that he can't recognise the emotion bubbling in his chest as they approach the capital at regular walking speed as terror. He's terrified. Not for himself –the worst he will face is embarrassment and possibly public censure– but for Kita. Kita who has a brilliant mind and plenty of cunning, is more than capable with a naginata and surprisingly quick with a knife, but who really struggles with handseals despite her nimbleness with wire, needles and koto strings and has such a mental block when it comes to using the names of jutsu as focusing mantras that her Great Fireball is _more controlled_ when she makes it silent and sealless.

She only mastered that very recently indeed, but it's something. Madara doesn't think Kita's weak –far from it– but she's not powerful in a way that other shinobi clan heads are likely to respect and her calm calculation is easily mistaken for submission.

The worst part is that Kita trusts the daimyo's protection. She genuinely doesn't believe that any of the other clans will risk outright censure on the off-chance that harming her will knock him off-balance. It's a terribly logical and practical perspective, but Madara _knows_ that truthfully, there are people –Uchiha people even– who in the moment only think of their own emotions and gains. They don't see the price and the potential for disaster until it's far too late.

At least Kita has Asami, who is a terror when given time to prepare her battleground, and Inemi who has a keen ear for politics and is in the process of inheriting about a third of the clan's letter-writing intelligence network from her great-aunt. They're both a little more grounded in the cynical realities than his betrothed, who does her best to see good in everybody. Which he _does_ appreciate, he really does, but… it can be nerve-racking.

Kita noticed he was worried before they left and invited him into her rooms while she was packing, which was a little awkward –clothes everywhere– but as she folded and layered and filled her portable chest and the seal painted in the bottom with clothing, books, embroidery projects, a letter box and various other odds and ends, she had explained a little about the position of women in the daimyo's court, from Murasaki-sama and her chosen ladies and attendants down to the wives and daughters of ministers, advisors and the rest of the nobility. It's not a world Madara knows, but that Kita does is promising. She calls it 'a different kind of battlefield, fought with poetry and gracious smiles and gifts that hide calculation and the hope for advancement' and Madara can sort-of see that, in that now she's mentioned it he can fit that into what little he's seen of the daimyo's court before.

He'll have to pay more attention this time.

She asked him to have faith in her, faith that she knows what she's doing and knows when to request reinforcements, and Madara is going to have to hold her to that, because as his father's heir he's going to be expected to follow behind Father everywhere. Izuna will have more freedom –well he will if Father allows him to– but really, the only truly mobile member of their party is Kita and Madara _knows_ his father is going to exploit that as ruthlessly as he can.

The only good thing Madara can say about _that_ is that at least his father recognises Kita's pacifistic and altruistic streak as beneficial to the clan. Yes, the war has been _dreadful_ but financially speaking they're on fairly steady ground compared to where they have been in the past. Kita's got a good head for numbers, a knack for trade and her seals mean the Uchiha barely lose anything to rot, vermin or mischance these days.

Her nightmare-defeating omamori seals have helped reduce deaths from exhaustion, distraction and misadventure in the Outguard as well. Which has likely brought up income too, due to having more people to _run_ missions.

As the city walls loom closer, Madara steels himself and resolves to learn this battlefield too. He can learn anything he sets his mind to, can _master_ anything he sets his mind to –has done so many times before– and this will be no different. Like Kita says, it is simply a different type of battlefield, with different weapons and different kinds of victory, and Madara _knows_ he is exceptionally good at war.

He would like the chance to find out if he can be good at peace as well.

* * *

The trip to the capital is done wearing work clothes, wraps and coats, all nine of them bundled up with hair tied back so as to look as interchangeable and androgynous as possible. They will of course have to dress formally and gender-appropriately once they arrive, but for now this is safer. From a distance they look like a regular mission group –even with Ikazuchi balancing her wheeled chest on his shoulder like it weighs nothing– rather than a formal delegation to the daimyo.

Kita argued for the chest; having furniture is an important part of entertaining and she _has_ to bring it to keep her kimono in while she is here, if only to obscure the umbrella bag seals a little longer. Yes, many other shinobi use storage scrolls, but you can't exactly keep clothes in a scroll without crumpling them all every time you take them out. Making a scroll wide enough to not crumple clothing being removed from it would be a specialty order and probably very expensive to boot. So, if your choice was between lugging a chest around and having slightly rumpled clothing, most people would go for the wrinkles.

Tajima-sama looked like he'd only given the order to see how she'd counter it; at least, she thinks that's what that slight amusement means. He'd then added a sealed jar of freshly-ground matcha to her chest along with his own tea ceremony chest, casually implied he expected her to take on the burden of hosting and then smugly left her to panic quietly for the entire journey.

She is _still_ not good at performing tea ceremony!

They arrive late in the evening –cunning of Tajima-sama as it's too late for formalities and after a long day on the road and a late night, expecting early morning attendance would be inhospitable– and are swiftly corralled into a self-contained suite that is essentially a smaller version of the clan hall back at the compound, complete with a large formal garden surrounding it and a small tea house off to one side.

"Rotating watch," Tajima-sama says curtly to Tsuyoshi after examining every room. The other man nods and turns to Homusubi and Ikazuchi, who quickly open the shōji of the room overlooking the nearest wing of the palace. The guest suite has a designated central meeting room, a smaller room behind it with an iori which is in turn connected to kitchen and a short passage leading to a tiny private bath house, then two empty rooms on either side of the main room. "Izuna, with me; Madara, with your betrothed. Girls, the last room."

Madara stiffens, eyes instantly darting to her face.

"Would you help me with my trunk, Madara-san?" Kita asks lightly. She's not upset; Madara sleeps in her room regularly and at least this way he won't sleepwalk over out of stress. In unfamiliar surroundings he could wander off anywhere; it's not like he's in control while sleepwalking.

Her betrothed ducks his head, face reddening, and does as she requests. He claims the room furthest from both the front door and the newly-established guard room for them, which has a shōji overlooking the garden and a limited view of the vine-covered wall past the trees, separating their guest house from the rest of the grounds.

"Kita, I–"

Kita turns quickly, slides the shōji closed behind them and lifts a finger to his lips. "Madara," she asks gently but firmly, "are _you_ uncomfortable with sharing a bed with me while we're here?"

Madara blinks rapidly at that reframing. "No?" He admits after a pause, face somehow redder.

"Good." She smiles at him. "It's going to be cold at night and you're very warm."

"Oh, so it's about you wanting to press your freezing feet into the backs of my knees," Madara banters back, his skin fading to a less alarming shade. "I should have guessed."

"Yes, you should have," Kita agrees cheekily, opening her chest and carefully removing the tea chest and sealed jar of matcha, setting them to one side of the shōji leading into the main room, then lifting out the futon occupying most of the rest of the space. As a full delegation, they are expected to bring everything they might need themselves other than food and basic furniture, and a futon is not 'basic'. Cushions are basic. Pans, a kettle and a hook over the iori are basic, as are plates and guest teacups. Tatami are basic. Indoor slippers lined up in the genkan are basic. Everything else is extra.

Madara takes the futon off her and unrolls it, shaking it out as she lifts out the sheets and blankets to reveal the seal underneath. Next up, her clothes rack.

As she unpacks Madara removes a folding armour rack and small clothes rack from his umbrella bag, followed by a small table with a drawer for paper or letters, a writing box, several minimally decorated lacquered boxes in varying sizes, three different kimono and their associated undershirts, a wash stand and what appears to be a miniature bench, the purpose of which is instantly revealed as Madara loads a few books and little sculptures onto it, changing the arrangement a few times until he is satisfied.

It certainly gives the room a casually lived-in feel. Kita meanwhile hangs her own kimono and associated layers over her own clothes rack –considerably more material that Madara has to deal with, even counting his hakama– takes out her screen to block off a corner of the room to change in and leave the futon behind during the day, removes her dressing table and mirror and box of kanzashi, arranges her own wash stand and miniature writing table and takes care to clear out the seal completely, finally placing her sewing bag over it. She then closes the chest, places a few books and pair of vases on top –she will have to find some suitably aesthetic branches to place in them later– and turns around holding what she had _intended_ as Madara's birthday present.

He's taken advantage of her being busy with her chest to slip out to the wash room and come back cleaner, already wearing his sleeping robe, adding his other garments to a vacant part of the clothes rack. Inemi will wash them later; the palace does offer a laundry service, but Tajima-sama doesn't trust it so Inemi will have to clean everybody's clothes herself.

"Madara, I planned this as your twentieth birthday present," she tells him as he notices the washi-wrapped package in her arms, "but with us being summoned here I felt I should give it to you sooner." She would have done this properly, except they're likely to wake up to events already being in motion so the sooner she gives this to him the better.

Madara carefully unfolds the washi. "Kita, is this your silk?" He asks, deftly lifting out the pale green-gold kimono she has woven for him with her own hands, with its arrowhead leaf pattern and pale grey lining, then the plain haori also in her tenran, the charcoal undershirt in regular silk and the matching charcoal-and-smoke double-sided obi with the diamond pattern.

"When I visited here last and spoke to the Minister of Sericulture," Kita says shyly, _knowing_ she has gone red, "I told him I wanted to dress you with my own hands." She has woven and stitched everything he is holding, even the obi which she spent almost a month tearing her hair over last winter; designing her own pattern was possibly a little over-ambitious.

Madara has gone red again and almost fumbles the obi, so he has definitely caught _all_ the implications there. "I, um, can _I_ –?" He asks, voice cracking and eyes very wide.

"Yes, yes you may," Kita replies, bowing to hide her own embarrassment at how her voice is wobbling. "Was there anybody else in the bathhouse?"

"Father and Izuna were there before me," Madara says, seizing the change of subject gratefully, "and Tsuyoshi and Homusubi went in right after me, so it will only be Inemi or Asami if anyone."

"I shall have a quick wash as well then," Kita decides, grabbing her towel and night gear. "Would you like me to braid your hair when I get back?"

"Thank you," Madara agrees, turning to carefully and reverently hang his new clothes alongside the others. Kita feels her heart swell at the sight, turns and quickly picks up her toiletries before fleeing the room as quickly as is decorous, pressing both hands to her scarlet cheeks once she's alone in the bath house and wiping away a few overwhelmed tears.

If she's like this _now_ , how much worse will it be once he's _wearing_ them?!

* * *

Kita has given him _clothes_.

 _Kita_ has given _him_ clothes. Beautiful clothing she has made herself, _for_ him.

Madara has been agonising about _maybe_ buying his betrothed a kimono and feeling secretly hot and awkward over the idea of seeing her in something he has picked out or even specially commissioned, and in the meantime she has been _making_ clothes for him. The idea of wearing these, that he will be dressed in the work of her hands, that silk she –and _only_ she– has touched will be sliding across his skin–

He gently leans his head against his kimono rack and groans. He wants her. He _knows_ he wants her, in a time of her own choosing of course, but still. Now he knows _she_ wants him too. Might not yet be sure _what_ she wants exactly, but the feeling has just been established as very _definitely_ mutual. And her presenting him with so many weeks' work after the busy year she's had implies that this has been building up for _some time_.

Well over a year, considering what she apparently told the Minister on her last visit eighteen months ago. Maybe as far back as when she was embroidering his goshawk on her obi.

Madara groans again, covering his face with both hands and wishing –hopelessly– that his emotions were a little easier to control. He _knows_ he must be as scarlet as when he was first learning the Great Fireball and burned his whole face by accident; he can feel the heat under his skin. How can she _do_ this to him? Nobody else can make him blush like this, not even Hashirama at his most embarrassing!

Knowing that in a little while they will be getting into bed together, that he will get to hold her in his arms in the dark and press his face against the back of her neck, really, _really_ does _not_ help.

* * *

Kita wakes up hungry, so takes the jug off her washstand and heads for the kitchen. There will be something she can nibble on as she heats water in the kettle, dried persimmons or maybe fresh oranges of some kind. Ikazuchi is the only other person awake –she can feel him sitting on the engawa outside the room Tsuyoshi and Homusubi are sleeping in– which is unusual, but she guesses the men are all still experiencing sleep debt from eighteen months of constantly having to be on their guard. Sleeping in a little here won't do them any harm.

What's keeping Inemi and Asami abed could be anything. Maybe it took them a while longer to get to sleep? They were still awake when she dropped off.

The kitchen has sweet oranges; Kita peels one after filling the kettle from the tap –the capital has running water piped everywhere rather than pumps and wells– and coaxing the embers in the iori back to life. The water doesn't need to be hot; warm is more than enough. The capital is way south of Uchiha lands and a good way east, so it's warmer and less damp; there's always water in the air at home, what with the compound not being tremendously far from the borders with Rain and River and there being a constant westerly breeze coming out of Wind to push the moisture back at them.

The daimyo's city is also built on a massive plain surrounded by rice fields, rather than in the forested gently rolling hills the Uchiha compound is nestled amongst. Where they are now is both further south and closer to sea level, so the weather being milder is not really a surprise.

Her water warmed, Kita fills her jug, refills the kettle and hangs it back over the iori, but a little higher; this way it will warm slowly and not boil, but whoever wakes next will not have to do as much for wash water.

Kita is casually dressed in her uchiwa kimono and pinning her hair up when she senses somebody walking towards their guest house; Ikazuchi has already seen them and doesn't appear concerned, so it's probably a servant bringing food. By the time she's finished with her hair they have left again, but Ikazuchi has placed a bamboo basket on the kitchen worktop and a stack of letters in the alcove in the main room, so Kita guesses they are what was brought.

Invitations, notifications and breakfast ingredients, including cleaned ayu and a ceramic bowl of freshly-cooked rice; Kita immediately scrawls a keep-hot seal on the rice pot and hangs a pan over the iori to make miso. The fish can be grilled on skewers over the fire, but first she has to scrape out some of the ashes from the iori.

The smell of grilling fish rouses everybody in the building; Ikazushi stops by first and eats rice, miso and pickles while waiting for the fish to be ready, then leaves with the first one, presumably to wake whoever has the next shift and get some sleep. Izuna stumbles into the dining room in his nightwear a few minutes later and accepts a tray, kneeling beside the iori as he eats his fish straight off the skewer. Madara walks in dressed –good, he found the jug of warm water she left him– and accepts another tray with a murmur of thanks; Tajima-sama walks past the kitchen to the bathhouse, returns just as Izuna is finishing and takes his own meal back into the main room, where he will probably start going over the letters. Then Tsuyoshi, Inemi and Asami arrive and Kita assembles a tray for Homusubi, who is evidently on duty now, and carries it to him around the engawa so as not to disturb Tajima-sama.

Then she makes tea for Tajima-sama, which Madara carries into the main room since his father will want to turn this into a teaching experience for him. Her morning's work complete –Inemi and Asami can collect the plates and do the washing up since she cooked– Kita walks around the engawa to fetch her coat from her room, then cuts through Inemi and Asami's room to get to the genkan and put on her shoes. She wants to investigate the guest tea house she will no doubt be entertaining in.

She has never actually entertained in a chashitsu before –the Uchiha can't afford to have a building that only gets used a few times a year like that– but she has had them explained to her and modelled with genjutsu and has even been hosted in one the last time she was in the capital, so it should not be a problem. The tea house has been very recently cleaned, there is a box of charcoal in the mizuya ready for a host to heat water with, several labelled jars containing different kinds of ash, a range of portable shelves to display the tea utensils on, a portable brazier for summer ceremonies, a drawer with several little boxes containing new tea whisks and even a small collection of scrolls, vases and okimono to set out in the alcove before the ceremony.

Tajima-sama has of course brought a range of those himself –well he'd instructed Kita, Madara and Izuna to pack them– but it is considerate of the daimyo's staff to have a simple selection on hand.

Returning to the guest house, she is directed to the main room by Homusubi; evidently Tajima-sama has made a few decisions.

Except not quite. It turns out the daimyo has been even sneakier than anticipated; clearly this has been in the works for some time.

"There are multiple Momijigari events being held," Tajima-sama explains flatly. "Only one is being hosted by the daimyo, in the palace gardens in three days' time; the others are being arranged by various ministers and advisors and the daimyo's wife is hosting a ladies-only one. I, my sons and yourself have been personally invited to the daimyo's event and you have been invited by the daimyo's wife to hers a week later; the other events trail into November and our entire delegation has been specifically invited by the Minister of Sericulture to the event his household is arranging on the first of November. Generic invitations have been issued by other advisors and ministers." He pauses. "There are several more invitations, to tea ceremonies and incense parties, and a general flyer advertising the pocky festival taking place in the city four days before Shichi-go-san."

Kita considers this and the implications, both obvious and more subtle. "How many of the invitations are addressed to me personally?" She's not surprised he opened all of them regardless; they do need to be coordinated here.

"Five." That is rather significant. "Murasaki-sama's leaf-viewing party, two invitations to tea, an incense party and a private note from one of Murasaki-sama's ladies-in-waiting requesting your presence at a games evening two days before Shichi-go-san."

"The games evening will be more about court gossip than the games," Kita admits, "which makes it rather more important." She knows about those; the ladies-in-waiting arrange them when Murasaki-sama is engaged in private family matters and does not require their services. "It being just before the festival implies that the daimyo will be presenting one of his own sons; Murasaki-sama only gives her ladies an evening off when she is occupied with her immediate family."

Tajima-sama nods; then again, he'd probably guessed already that the daimyo has a personal stake, to expect the presence of so many noble shinobi clans in the capital at once. "Your tea invitations are from the Minister of Ceramics and Aburame Shijin; the incense party is being hosted by Hyūga Hisaaki's wife Hinagiku. You are permitted to take a guest to each, so Madara will accompany you."

Kita ducks her head obediently. "Yes, Tajima-sama." Madara is higher-ranking than she is, so by taking him along she will be relegated to the position of second or third guest at the tea ceremonies. Not that she minds; it will be much more comfortable to have him sitting between herself and a powerful stranger with unknown motives.

"You will no doubt receive more invitations; be gracious but make no promises." Tajima-sama pauses to scrutinise her face. "You will keep one day a week free to visit the merchant district and I will make arrangements for you to host tea in return once the other women have sourced appropriate dishes and ingredients. You may also host less formal events, provided they do not clash and you provide me with suitable notice."

'Suitable notice' was a week; enough time to arrange food and tea, write invitations and ensure your minor event would not clash with a more important one your guests might also be invited to. "Thank you, Tajima-sama."

He hands her invitations over; Kita resolves to use a sheet of hemp paper to write herself a timetable. "I will also be taking you along to the kaiseki the Akimichi are hosting today at noon; there will no doubt be tea and politics afterwards, so bring something to keep yourself occupied." Meaning her embroidery, but Kita is tempted to bring one of her 'made up' –meaning remembered– scroll games. By all accounts the Akimichi are a friendly bunch –for ninja at least– so a board game could be just the thing to break the ice.

Or else the flounders game; wait, no, she always wins at that one and that's really _not_ politic.

* * *

Madara is a bit jealous; he's over here sitting with the adults –because of course Akimichi Chōtai brought the Heads of the Yamanaka and Nara clans and their heirs along with him as part of his entourage– but all the other clan heirs are Kita's age or slightly younger, so they're excused from the political trading of verbal jabs over tea. Lunch was admittedly _completely_ glorious, but having to sit silently and try to decipher all the various levels this conversation is taking place on while in the background there's the clatter of dice, occasional delighted hissing and rueful groaning is really a bit much to ask.

Kita brought along the scroll for the 'prisoner in the tower' game and by the sound of it even the lethargic Nara Shikari has been drawn into things.

He chances a surreptitious glance sideways; Akimichi Mao has put down the fan she was hiding behind earlier and is vigorously shaking the dice with a happy smile on her round face, Yamakana Inosuke is biting his lip, Nara Shikari is glaring pensively at the paper tower with his hands cupped in front of him and Izuna has his back to Madara, but the way he's leaning towards Akimichi Chōkō implies they're managing to get along decently well.

Kita also has her back to him, showing off the brilliant blue kimono the clan's widows have made for her with its painted rose branches and a red obi printed with an arrangement of variously patterned fans on the drum knot, her posture all relaxed amusement. Clearly she's feeling vindicated over bringing the game; everybody is getting along and nobody is insulting anybody else, which is definitely an almost unprecedented success.

"Feeling a little left out, Madara-kun?"

Madara's eyes shoot back to the table in front of him; Yamanaka Inoshi is eyeing him knowingly.

"I've played before, Yamanaka-sama," he says quietly. "Kita-san created the game for my younger cousins to enjoy on winter evenings."

"It does look like a great deal of fun," Akimichi Chōtai agrees warmly, smiling down at him. "It's even brought my Mao-chan out of her shell."

Madara dares to glance over at the game again as Mao throws her dice and the other teenagers erupt in cheers and groans. "I think she's winning, Akimichi-sama." Mao has just moved a red tile, of which there are three piled up on the far left, and landed on a blue tile, sending it to the tower –Madara can tell by that shift in posture that Izuna is pouting– and liberating a green one –evidently Shikari's– which is placed at the base.

"I think I'd like a copy," Yamanaka Inoshi muses. "Make a change from shoji, hm?" He nudges Nara Shikamotsu.

"Troublesome," the Nara murmurs, eyeing his son; Shikari is evidently finding a game based as much on chance as strategy far more challenging than he initially expected. "What are the rules?"

Madara steels his spine at suddenly being the centre of all four clan heads' attention. "The game is for two to four players, but can also be played in teams. Each player or team has four counters which they have to move along a single winding path to the far side of the board, throwing a dice to dictate how many spaces they can move a single piece each turn. Upon throwing a six, a player may move their current piece six spaces, bring another piece onto the path or liberate a trapped piece. A piece is trapped by having another piece land on it, one of the player's own pieces included, and then placed in the tower. Only one piece can be trapped at a time, but a piece liberated by throwing a six can be placed directly back onto the path at a specific point, while a piece liberated simply by being replaced in the tower must travel from the tower to the main path. There are also two choke points, where a piece cannot be overtaken even by your other pieces. However, since a player _must_ move a piece each turn, those chokepoints cannot be held indefinitely, especially since they are also the landing points for pieces liberated from the tower by throwing a six. There is also a point where the path splits, with each side being a different length. The winner is the first person to have all their counters arrive at the garden at the far end of the path." Has he forgotten anything… "Pieces may only move forwards along the path."

"As much about the luck of the die and the strategies of your fellow players as your own choices, hm?" The Yamanaka clan head muses. "It does sound like fun; I might actually win against you for once, Shikamotsu."

"A very interesting creation," the Nara Head agrees mildly, eyes shifting to Madara's father. "I wonder what inspired her."

The players clearly haven't noticed that they're the subject of their parents' conversation; they're far too busy racing for first place –which Izuna has just failed to secure, judging by the sag of his shoulders. Mao snatches up the die, shakes it vigorously and throws it; her excited squeak indicates that she holds the day.

There's a round of congratulations for the Akimichi heiress, then the die passes to Inosuke and the battle for second place begins in earnest.

"If I provide scrolls, would you be willing to dash off copies, Madara-kun?" the Akimichi Head asks, tone making it clear he's well aware this is a _very_ frivolous use of the sharingan. "Just of the board and the rules; I'm sure we'll manage to source game pieces and a suitable tower."

Madara makes a show of thinking about it, glancing at his father and letting his eyes drift over to Kita again as she throws the die and secures second place for the blue team. "Might you be able to recommend me a good place to buy wagashi, Akimichi-sama?" he asks. Yes, he's implying it's for personal reasons –and it kind of is– but knowing where the Akimichi buy _their_ wagashi will also locate a suitable vendor for the Uchiha to buy and order sweets to serve during the tea ceremonies Father intends to have Kita host.

The massive man chuckles. "I would be delighted to, Madara-kun."

* * *

In tea terms October is part of the summer, so Kita is not surprised that the Minister of Ceramics has decided to host a Yūzari-no-chaji, beginning just as the sun sets with candles illuminating the very well-appointed tea house adjacent to his residence and the surrounding garden. Ceramics have much to do with tea ceremony, so it is not so surprising that the Minister is a connoisseur.

Or at least, that he _considers_ himself a connoisseur. This tea ceremony is markedly more… performative, than the one hosted by the Minister of Sericulture's assistant. Then there was the sense that the Minister could simply have offered a meal or the opportunity to wander in the palace gardens but had chosen instead to honour his guests with a chaji, while here there is a very definite aura of pomp and superiority poisoning the atmosphere.

All of the decorative features in the large chashitsu are new and gleaming, despite early November being the traditional time to repair and renovate a tea room, not September. The meal involves many foreign seasonal delicacies which are difficult to source and very expensive. The sake is from the daimyo's own supplier. The scroll was written mere weeks ago by a Fire Temple monk. The vase containing the chabana is a recent gift from a famous stoneware lineage. The sweets are exquisite namagashi, shaped like maple leaves and intricate chrysanthemum flowers. The chawan is a beautiful piece, ruddy orange with a lovely shape and from another well-known pottery family, but after the thick tea their host rinses it for almost two minutes, indicating that it has never been used before.

The picture being painted is very clear: the Minister of Ceramics is a man who craves the deference that comes with being at the height of fashion and is accustomed to twisting gifts into bribes, using his position to inconvenience those who do not honour him as he perceives to be his due. He wants something from her, so is using the chaji as an attempt to overawe her and make her feel inferior and indebted, so that when he makes his 'request' she does not think to ask for anything in return.

Tajima-sama was very wise to insist on Madara attending with her. He is a bulwark against this man's attention, occupying the first guest position and forcing the Minister to focus on him rather than on her. Her betrothed has also very clearly caught the flavour and the meaning behind the Minister's hosting decisions and is seething furiously under a thin façade of good manners and steely chakra control.

Kita hopes very much that he does not explode before they have made good their escape. The Minister of Ceramics is a man of considerable power, influence and intelligence, no matter how personally repellent; making an enemy of him would be shockingly unwise.

It is a challenge to keep that in mind when the thin tea is served along with intricately moulded and exotically coloured rakugan flavoured with expensive sugar. She knows pricing; you can feed a family of six for a week with the rice bought with what one box of these sweets costs. The brief, violent twitch in her betrothed's chakra says he knows that too.

The conversation over the thin tea is irregular, because it is _supposed_ to be between the guests but the Minister of Ceramics has chosen to host this ceremony –presumably so he has no witnesses to his attempt to catch a young noblewoman alone and pressure her into offering him a lavish and inappropriate gift– and has not yet been able to address Kita directly even once. Madara's gentle seethe rises to a low boil as the Minister compliments her betrothed's obi –made from her peace silk, which he is wearing over a reddish brown kimono– and reveals that he knows it is her handiwork. Kita humbly thanks him for the compliment, adding that it means a great deal to her coming from a man with such great aesthetic sense.

It is very nice that polite Japanese requires such indirect speech. Kita does not personally think the Minister of Ceramics has any appreciation for the true spirit of wabi-sabi at all.

The Minister tries to imply that he is worthy of such a gift as well, which Madara firmly curtails –with remarkable politeness all things considered– to say that _his_ betrothed's achievements honour and strengthen their clan. The implication being that unless the Minister makes them a _very_ generous offer, he will not be getting anything from them. Also that Madara does _not_ like how familiarly the other man is addressing her.

Kita shifts in the sudden tension and briefly wonders aloud whether the Minister is aware that certain members of the Uchiha clan are interested in how fire techniques could be adjusted for firing pottery. The Minister had not known. The Minister finds the idea fascinating. Madara settles back into his steady seethe and mentions through gritted teeth that fire techniques, with their ability to reach high temperatures very quickly, would be perfect for firing raku-style pottery. The Minister is even more interested and offers to write a letter of recommendation for them, as well as give them the names of certain well-regarded potters working in that style who have younger sons that would be interested in striking out on their own.

Madara decides this is a worthy offer –or possibly that he cannot feasibly hold his temper for very much longer– and thanks the Minister of Ceramics for allowing him to strengthen his clan. Kita agrees that she would be honoured to weave an obi of peace silk –the definition of which pleases the Minister very much– for their generous host.

The tea is finished, the formal handling of the tea utensils progresses without incident and they are bowed out of the teahouse to put on their coats and sandals and make their own way back to their guesthouse by lantern-light. Madara makes it all the way into a public section of the palace gardens before exploding.

"How _dare_ he! That fat, grasping _spider_ of a–!" He waves his free hand for a few vehement seconds then clenches it in a fist. "How _dare_ he treat you so poorly! You are a daughter of a noble clan and deserve all respect! Not that, that–!" His eyes light up with sharingan as his chakra flares threateningly.

At least he's snarling through his teeth and keeping his voice down. Kita turns to face him, wrapping one hand over his and gently steering him off the path and under a nearby tree. "I had you with me," she reminds him soothingly. "You kept me safe."

Madara huffs, but his chakra gradually settles again. "Well, at least we're getting that letter in the morning," he grumbles sourly.

"Hm," Kita agrees lightly, "and I can't _possibly_ provide an obi for the most honourable Minister before next autumn, seeing as all my caterpillars are in the egg now and will stay there until the spring."

Madara blinks, turning to look at her properly.

"Which he should have known already, seeing as its seasonality is a large part of why tenran adheres so closely to wabi-sabi."

Madara bursts out laughing, the sound almost manic. "You are _perfect_ ," he informs her when he gets control over his voice again, pulling her close and wrapping his free arm round her waist. His face is inches from hers, his eyes shining red and his gleeful smile illuminated by the soft glow from the lantern, and Kita wants to kiss him.

So she unfolds her fan, lifts it up so nobody walking along the path can see their faces and goes up on tiptoe to touch her lips against his.

His immediate and enthusiastic reciprocation is everything she's ever wanted. That he manages to put the lantern down on a convenient and aesthetic rock and wraps that arm around her shoulders, fingertips caressing the back of her neck inside her coat collar and sending shudders down her spine, makes her wish the moment would never end, but it's late and Tajima-sama is definitely waiting for them.

They'll have plenty of time to do this again later.

* * *

"So what is your opinion of the Minister of Ceramics, Kita?" Father asks after Madara has ranted himself out over the sheer _disrespect_ shown to both the clan generally and to his betrothed as a person.

"The Minister of Ceramics," Kita says quietly and deliberately, "is a man who would break a new tea bowl so as to have it mended with gold."

The implications there are… deep; Madara's not entirely sure he's caught all of them just yet. His father clearly has though; he looks cautiously satisfied. "A messenger arrived with the letter of recommendation and associated introductions before your return," he informs them both, "and I will allow the _misunderstanding_ over when exactly he will receive his 'gift' to stand, even though I know you are yet to weave anything from your spun silk this year, Kita."

Kita smiles; the expression reminds Madara of the time he accidentally came face to face with a tiger while running cross-country. "But that silk is already spoken for, Tajima-sama," she murmurs, eyes lidded and predatory. "One should always honour their existing commitments before picking up any new ones."

His father smiles, a brief, sharp twist of the lips that leaves Madara slightly stunned. When has he last seen that expression off the battlefield?

"Indeed," the Outguard Head agrees mildly, "and the delay is a suitable repayment for the insult he has done to the Uchiha. Now go to bed, both of you; there are certain things that need to be bought and ordered for the leaf viewing the day after tomorrow and you will both be heading into town to buy them in the morning."

"Yes, Tajima-sama." Kita goes; Madara hesitates.

"What is it, Madara?"

"Father, why are _we_ being sent into the city tomorrow?" Madara asks warily. He was able to deduce from this morning's meeting with one of the daimyo's advisors that the Senju hadn't yet arrived at that point, and if they are still not here now then they will definitely be arriving tomorrow, probably in the morning. Inemi could go with one of the other men rather than him going with Kita.

"Because I want you and your temper to be absent from my first civilian encounter with Butsuma," his father tells him bluntly, "and I want a read on his eldest in your absence. He behaves differently when you're about and not being on a battlefield will give me a better chance to judge the differences."

"Yes Father." Madara bows, accepting the reminder that he needs to keep a better leash on his temper; he also hadn't realised Hashirama behaves differently when he's there. That is something he's going to have to think about. He leaves the room, still thinking about it. What does that say about his friend?

The sight of Kita brushing her loose hair in front of her mirror, wearing just her nagajuban, reminds him abruptly that less than an hour ago she kissed him for the first time and it was _wonderful_. So wonderful he wants to do it again now that their commitments for the evening are entirely over.

Seeing as there's no reason why not, he sits down next to her, watching her in the mirror as she watches him in turn, enjoying the heat building slowly in her eyes and chakra as she finishes combing her hair and neatly braids it for the night.

"Do my hair next?" He asks when she finishes. His hair is currently up in a topknot as a concession to court formality, which is nothing like he's used to and slightly uncomfortable in how it changes his sense of balance. Kita hums, turning towards him and neatly removing all the pins and ties to let his hair fall around his face, combing her fingers through it. She's so close he could lean forwards and kiss her.

Then she picks up her comb, scoots around behind him over the tatami and divides his hair into sections for braiding. Madara makes a face at her in the mirror; that was mean, getting his hopes –and his heartbeat– up like that.

"We both need to dress for bed," Kita points out mildly, smirking over his shoulder.

Kissing Kita by lantern-light when she's fully dressed is a delight, but now Madara's thinking about blowing out the lantern and kissing her in the dark, being able to feel her fluttering heartbeat through that single layer of nightwear as their legs tangle together under the blankets and she trembles in his arms.

Oh yes. He _wants_ that.

"Do I get a goodnight kiss?" he asks, voice low and rough. The flutter in her chakra is deeply satisfying somehow.

"As many as you give me," she promises, reaching past him to set the comb on her dressing table before getting to her feet. Madara follows her up; she's tall for a woman, but still considerably shorter than he is. She's got the classic Uchiha chin, sharp and fine, and the delicate cheekbones like Izuna does. There are people at court who'd call her beautiful –he overheard Akimichi Mao say something wistful-sounding about her poise– but to Madara she looks like herself. Like Kita.

She looks warm and brilliant and cunning and kind and ever so slightly wicked, and he doesn't _want_ to wait to kiss her. "Can't I kiss you now?" He asks, sliding fingertips along the underside of her jaw.

Her eye contact is steady despite the slight flush in her cheeks. "Now or later?"

Madara pouts deliberately, knowing he looks ridiculous but also that Kita finds his pouting amusing. "Later." If it's one or the other he wants later, because now would mean not getting to kiss her again after they're in bed and that would be torture.

He should wash his face and change quickly, so later arrives sooner.

* * *

Kita's holding the layered bento box with all their lunches in and laughing behind her fan as Izuna and Madara argue loudly but entirely unseriously about the best angle to lay out the blanket they're all going to be sitting on –parallel to the path or skewed, under this tree or the one next to it– while Tajima-sama talks to the daimyo. It's a lovely warm morning for late October and the rows of maples filling this particular section of the palace gardens are completely glorious, all in shades of red, orange and vibrant yellow. She wishes Inemi and Asami were allowed to be here too, but the daimyo's participation means this event is strictly by invitation only; the maple walk will be open to everybody with access to the palace from tomorrow though, so they will get to enjoy it later. Kita knows they're planning on bringing their own picnic tomorrow, possibly with some of the lower-ranking ladies-in-waiting floating around the complex.

Then suddenly she can't breathe.

"Madara!"

Her betrothed is slammed into the ground by a whirl of cream haori and dull green kimono, but Kita _can't breathe_. The air is thick with dense, cloying chakra, her throat is blocked–

Then fire cuts through, burning the obstruction away and wrapping around her protectively. Kita sags forwards into familiar arms, shuddering as adrenaline fades away and resting her forehead against her betrothed's shoulder. The air in her lungs tingles with sparking embers of his chakra, but that's so much better than suffocating that she can't bring herself to care that she can't sense anyone or anything past Madara anymore.

"Better?" He asks her, gently cradling the back of her head with one hand, the other supporting her lower back. He's wearing the pale golden green kimono she made for him under his open Uchiha coat, which he's wearing inside-out to show off the patchwork. They're all wearing their coats inside-out in fact; this kind of showy formal occasion rather calls for it. She really wishes Izuna had let her make him something less basic last winter, not that anybody else here knows the Uchiha coats are her handiwork.

Kita takes a deep, blessedly easy breath. "Did I drop our lunch?" She asks, opening her eyes and peering up at his face.

"Izuna caught it," Madara assures her, face tight with worry. "And your fan. Are you alright? I felt you panic; what happened?"

Just beyond Madara's neatly contained wildfire is the smothering mass that just almost killed her. It feels… concerned? "Is that your friend?" She asks quietly.

Madara hums, his entire focus still on her face.

"I think I choked on his chakra," Kita admits softly. "I'm used to fire, not… whatever that is. And he's not even slightly contained."

Her betrothed's face tightens. "No, he really isn't," he agrees, then neatly spins them around and lifts his head to glare over her shoulder. "Get a hold on your chakra, idiot; you're smothering people!"

"I didn't mean to! Is she okay?!" The pressure recedes, but doesn't actually go away. It's still _there_ , looming overhead like a death threat.

Madara growls, his grip on her tightening. "That means pull your chakra _under_ your skin, idiot! I'm amazed your brother hasn't murdered you yet, you must give him headaches just by proximity!"

"Madara you're so meeeeean!" Kita half-turns to see a tall man with almost waist-length brown hair wearing a dull green kimono and white haori, sagging forwards at the waist with his face in his hands, chakra-enhanced gloom swirling around him like a stormcloud. The overall effect is singularly insincere; he's certainly not paid any attention whatsoever to Madara's request.

The man next to him is identically dressed, short ivory hair sticking out all over the place like a dandelion puff and a singularly longsuffering expression in his dark grey eyes as he stands with his arms folded across his chest, a bento box hanging from one hand. "Stop making a scene, Anija."

Kita turns around fully in Madara's arms and lets her eyes slide sideways to where Izuna is indeed cradling both the bento box and her fan, a muscle twitching in his cheek as he glares murderously at the white-haired man. She reaches out and pokes him in the ribs. "Introduce your acquaintance." He's the lowest ranking man present on the Uchiha side, this is his responsibility.

Izuna glares at her, then huffs and remembers his manners. "Senju," he says flatly, making eye-contact with the white-haired man as he waves her fan in her direction, "allow me to present my brother's betrothed, Uchiha Kita. Kita-chan, meet Senju Tobirama, second son of Senju Butsuma."

Kita gently disentangles herself from Madara and bows appropriately. "Senju-san."

Tobirama bows equally appropriately. "Uchiha-san."

Hashirama straightens up, theatrics forgotten. "This is your betrothed, Madara?" He turns to beam at her, cheer beating forcefully against the protective chakra Madara still has her cocooned in. "It's lovely to meet you, Kita-chan!"

His manners are terrible and it _has_ to be on purpose; he's his father's _heir_. Does he think nobody's going to call him on it? Kita reaches out and snags her fan off Izuna so she can hide the lower half of her face behind it. "Senju-sama."

He waves both hands vigorously. "No, no need to be so formal! Madara's my friend and you're going to marry him, so you can call me Hashirama!"

Kita considers her chances and decides a strategic concession would be tactically viable. "Hashirama-san. Seeing as addressing both of you as Senju-san would be confusing." A light insult, as it implies she holds his younger brother in higher esteem.

"I also would be honoured to be addressed by name, Uchiha-san," Tobirama adds with a quick yet impeccably respectful bow, glaring briefly at the back of his brother's head. Well at least _one_ of them acknowledges the importance of civility.

"Likewise, Tobirama-san," Kita concedes, lowering her fan slightly. "Is it just the two of you here today?"

"Our father is speaking to the daimyo," Tobirama says, his chakra tightly contained and utterly bland –implying he is aware that Tajima-sama is doing likewise; well the daimyo's certainly playing a dangerous game today– "and instructed us to find a suitable place to sit."

"Are you sitting here?" Hashirama asks eagerly, gaze over Kita's head so presumably making eye-contact with Madara, who has been surprisingly quiet thus far. "We could be nearby!"

"That strikes me as impolitic, Hashirama-san," Kita interjects swiftly as her betrothed's chakra roils around her, "as I believe yours and Madara-san's fathers do not get along. The tension between them would ruin the experience for the rest of the guests around us, which would be most inconsiderate to both them and to our host."

Tobirama's single raised eyebrow is the only movement on his face in response to her significant yet polite understatement, but he also chimes in: "Mito-san has our blanket, Anija. She's setting it up on the far side of the avenue; we only came over here because you saw Madara-san." He's really surprisingly formal with his brother, isn't he?

"Awww," Hashirama whines. "I'm sure she'd move over here if we asked!"

Kita does not believe that in the slightest; her split-second of eye-contact with Senju Tobirama makes it clear that he doesn't either. "We will be visiting the palace for another three weeks, Hashirama-san," she points out as mildly as she can. "Surely there will be other opportunities to socialise?"

Izuna's strangled snarl is mostly drowned out by Hashirama's instant switch to sunny cheer. "Of course there will be! Thanks, Kita-chan! See you later Madara!" He hares off. The press of chakra finally recedes.

Tobirama sketches a bow. "Until next time, Madara-san, Izuna-san, Kita-san." He strides after his brother at a more sedate pace.

"Why did you?!" Izuna hisses, gesturing incoherently.

"It made him leave, didn't it?" Kita points out quietly. "Madara?" He's barely said a word. His chakra however has been fairly explicit on his discomfort.

She feels him rest his forehead against the side of her head. "He was very rude to you," her betrothed comments flatly.

Kita turns fully so she can look him in the face. "Yes, he was," she agrees, conscious of their audience. There are all kinds of people milling around within earshot, people who definitely gave that little clash with the Senju their _full_ attention, if only so as to be able to run if things went badly. "Tobirama-san however was very proper and respectful."

"Kita-chan! They're our _enemies_!"

"We are all here as guests of the daimyo, Izuna-kun," Kita reminds him evenly. "Our good manners show our respect for our host, regardless of personal differences. We are not animals."

Izuna at least accepts that reasoning. "Fine. But I am _not_ accepting any personal invitations from that lot and neither are you."

"Shall we sit down?" Kita suggests, changing the subject. "We're supposed to be admiring the leaves and I thought it might be nice to try a bit of poetry too." She's brought her writing box and some good washi as well as a good amount of hemp paper.

"Are you going to try some leaf-themed haiku?" Madara asks, a hint of amusement finally seeping into his tone.

Kita lowers her fan enough to smile at him properly. "I might."

He steps past her, tugging her forwards and over to the blanket, which is a bit rumpled. "I like your haiku."

"You always tell me they're terrible!" He does, but he's always happy when he says it so she invariably lets it slide and doesn't take it personally.

"They are," he informs her, eyes glinting. "Haiku are supposed to be tranquil, not funny. But I still like them."

Kita shoves him; he collapses face-down on the blanket in a heap.

"Is he dead?" Izuna asks, coming up behind her. "He'd better not be; I don't want to lead the clan."

Kita settles herself primly on the blanket next to her dramatic oaf of a betrothed and pokes him in the ribs. "Sit properly, you're making a scene."

Madara levers himself up into a sitting position and leans into her a little. "Happy?"

"Ecstatic," she tells him dryly. "Now let's admire the leaves a bit so we can say we did, then eat lunch once Tajima-sama gets here."

"Finally a plan I can get behind," Izuna agrees, settling at right angles to her and Madara and placing the bento in the middle of the blanket.

She's met the Senju brothers and nobody started a fight, which is probably a miracle she should be giving thanks for. Kita leans more solidly into her betrothed, tipping her head back to admire the fiery foliage. "Do you think I could press some leaves as a souvenir?"

"Would they keep their colour?" Izuna asks curiously.

"I don't know, but it would be fun to try." Kita pauses, then lowers her voice. "Are you going to admire the leaves with your sharingan?"

"That's kind of frivolous, Kita-chan," Izuna replies.

Kita fiddles with her fan. "You both see so many terrible things," she says softly, "and you can't forget any of them. I don't see why you wouldn't try to see beautiful and pleasant things too, to balance them out."

"It would make a change from nightmares," Madara agrees quietly, gently squeezing her free hand. "It's a good idea, Kita; we'll try it." He leans back further, eyes turning red as he stares at the leaves overhead. "Hey, there's a tiny owl in this tree."

"Where?" Kita leans back too, trying to spot the bird.

"There, see?" Madara points upwards.

"I see it," Izuna says, sharingan out. "It's a horned leaf-owl!"

It takes Kita a few more seconds; the owl is indeed tiny, almost invisible against the tree trunk far above them. "Found it."

"I wonder how many more birds we can spot," Izuna muses, eyes roving across the canopy overhead. "Hey, a squirrel; shouldn't they be hibernating?"

"Maybe they bed down a bit later here, seeing as it's warmer?" Kita suggests.

"Maybe. Ooh, that leaf's a funny shape."

"Where?"

"Up there; it's got an extra finger."

Kita settles in, embracing the moment and enjoying the increasing sense of restfulness and joy radiating from her two companions as they find more interesting things to point out to each-other. This is good. Maybe they can do this at home as well.

* * *

Tea with the Aburame Clan Head is nothing at all like tea with the minister had been. For one the tea ceremony is first thing in the morning, and for another it is taken outdoors under a willow tree. A nodate chakai is the least formal tea possible –there is no meal, no thick tea, no scroll to admire and minimal equipment– and it is hosted by an Aburame woman only slightly older than Kita.

Aburame Shijin has made an effort to ensure Madara's betrothed will be comfortable and to keep political pressures at an absolute minimum. There is just enough formality to provide structure, but not so much as to be stifling, and the bowls the thin tea is served in have little damselflies painted on them.

"I have invited you to tea because I am curious why the Uchiha clan have started a fashion for wild silk," the Aburame Clan Head says straightforwardly once the tea has been served. "It is quite out of character, and so worth investigating."

Madara glances at Kita, who answers comfortably: "It was not at all intentional, Aburame-sama: I am personally fond of wild silk and raise my own caterpillars, so when the Minister of Sericulture expressed admiration for an obi I had spun and woven myself I wished to share my joy with a fellow enthusiast. Then the daimyo's wife also took an interest, after which matters seems to have rather spiralled out of control." She ducked her head. "I spin almost as much silk as I reel, since I prefer to free my moths after they have laid their first load of eggs, and I feel that silk which does not require the death of a pupa holds an equal if different value to reeled silk."

Aburame Shijin nods, sipping his tea. "The Aburame have been approached by others inquiring after wild silk," he says after lowering his cup. "Would the Uchiha be amenable to our accepting this opportunity?"

Ah, so this is about the Aburame not wanting to accidentally instigate hostilities with the Uchiha over new ventures; Madara feels the last of his suspicion dissipate. Kita was approached because she is the clan's visible representative for Uchiha silk and was the one to start the business with the wild silk in the first place. "The Uchiha are not interested in pursuing tenran on a larger scale, Aburame-sama," he confirms.

"I am mostly producing it for my own enjoyment, Aburame-sama," Kita agrees self-deprecatingly. "If my enthusiasm has led to economic opportunities for your clan, that is an unexpected but not unhappy outcome. I wish you all the best in your endeavours."

"Then the Aburame clan will make the most of this opportunity," the Clan Head says calmly. "It promises to be quite interesting."

Madara suspects he means 'lucrative' as much as that getting paid for something other than pollinating orchards or running mercenary missions will be a significant change of pace; the Aburame affinity for insects means they will be able to farm wild caterpillars on a much larger scale than Kita can in her trays, so they will hold an effective monopoly on something that is in high demand among the richest people in the country. Possibly in neighbouring countries as well once news gets around.

Even if he _had_ objected, Madara doubts that the Aburame would have let the opportunity pass; they'd simply have taken steps to prepare for retaliation and sabotage. The truth is that the Uchiha aren't equipped to compete with the Aburame in anything that involves insects; the only reason their clan hasn't _already_ monopolised the silk market is that domesticated silkworms are effectively helpless and are killed by the thousand in the process of reeling the thread. The Aburame identify far too closely with insects to be party to such wholesale slaughter, but tenran –which involves far more mobile caterpillars and has the moths survive longer after breeding– is evidently more palatable to them.

Madara sips his tea. Kita is helping him bring peace to other shinobi clans by providing opportunities for those clans to choose peace for themselves. And it's _working_.

After the tea –and Shijin's comment that the Aburame would be happy to engage in correspondence with the Uchiha to ensure Kita's caterpillars are suitably comfortable– Madara leads Kita on a slow circuit of the section of the palace gardens nearest the Aburame's guesthouse; these are presumably winter gardens, being in the northeast corner of the palace enclosure and featuring a section filled with row after row of plum trees curled around a small pavillion. Presumably the daimyo hosts parties to view the plum blossom in the winter as well as the maple leaves in the autumn.

As the trees aren't doing anything in particular at this time of year, it's almost completely deserted; Madara notices a gardener up a ladder at the far end of the arching walk, trimming away dead wood, but that's all. It means there's nobody to see him wrap his arms around his betrothed and kiss her under the spreading branches, nobody to stare or disapprove as he cups the back of her neck and she digs her fingers into his hair.

Nobody to see Kita untie the front of his coat, tug his kimono collar wider and suck a scarlet mark on the side of his neck while he shudders at the sensations her attentions elicit and plays with the fine curls at her nape, enjoying how the stiff collar of her slip gives him an unobstructed view down her back inside her clothing, all the way to where the obi wraps around her waist.

There's nobody to see him tug her own collar loose and return the favour afterwards, kissing and nibbling her upper back and leaving a round bruise just to one side of her spine where he will be able to see it later. They both have to take the time to straighten their clothes afterwards, but it's well worth it. Even if they are almost late getting back to the guesthouse; Father is waiting for them when they get in, but that's on time, not _late_.

The way his father raises an amused eyebrow says he knows exactly what they've been doing, but Madara refuses to be embarrassed; they're _betrothed_. They're supposed to be spending time together and getting along.

The only other thing Madara has that's entirely _his_ are his hawks, and Kita is so much more interesting and fun than they are. The betrothal may have been Father's idea, but what he and Kita have made of it is entirely their own and he isn't going to compromise it for anybody.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On appearances, there are a few inconsistencies between the manga and the anime and Tobirama's eyes are one of them: in the manga his eyes are dark, not light. Similarly, manga Tōka looks rather like a brunette Gwendoline Christie, while anime Tōka is more suspiciously Uchiha-esque. I have gone with manga appearances in my story.

The incense party goes as well as can be expected, given that it's hosted by Hyūga Hinagiku and seems mostly to have been set up to give said clan the opportunity to conclusively identify her. The rest of the guests are almost all women: two more main line Hyūga, a member of the Mizuchi clan about Kita's age who introduced herself as Tatsumi, accompanied by her older brother Koro –the only other man present aside from Madara– and three court ladies who probably have some kind of connection to the Hyūga. Sisters of women who married into the clan, perhaps?

It's kind of fun, even with the other eight people present being more or less formally allied to their hostess. Kita is presented with a small box of incense blends as a gift to take home afterwards, which she accepts politely and is privately confused by. She knows very little about the Hyūga, despite them being considered a sister clan to the Uchiha. In fact Kita knows more about the Mizuchi, but that's mainly due to them being a rather small clan with the kind of reputation that prompts civilians to withhold goods and form mobs to drive them out of an area.

Kita's never actually heard of any Mizuchi actually _doing_ anything meriting that kind of reaction, but having met some she now sees where the civilians are coming from. They _do_ have a certain air, like they don't care that you know that they think you might be edible. It's something about the eyes, Kita decides; gold eyes with vertical slits like that are distinctly crocodilian and there's something in the human hindbrain that _knows_ when it's looking at an apex predator.

The chalky skin and almost unnatural fluidity of movement do not help there. Tatsumi was perfectly friendly though, so Kita is prepared to set first impressions aside. She knows how Uchiha can come across when they're being standoffish and defensive.

Murasaki-sama's ladies-only leaf-viewing event, held in her private garden, is rather trickier to navigate despite Kita having Inemi with her: it is when Kita meets Uzumaki Mito.

Uzumaki Mito attends the event alone, which implies she is the only woman in the Senju party, or possibly just that she feels perfectly capable of navigating a party held by the daimyo's wife without an ally at her back. Or maybe that she does not consider any of the other women that Senju Butsuma may have brought along to _count_ as allies. It's impossible to tell, as Kita doesn't know the composition of the Senju delegation so can only baselessly speculate.

It's hard to tell or infer much at all; the redhead has impressively controlled chakra, a magnificent poker face and says very little. She also has what are definitely seal tags hanging from her hairstyle, so Kita is reluctant to get too close. The Uchiha have stories about the Uzumaki. All kinds of stories, many of which boil down to 'crazy redheads who don't know when to lie down and die' and 'we _still_ don't know what that seal did.' She also remembers nothing of Mito personally to suggest caution is not merited.

Kita is polite when introduced, Mito is polite in return and they take care to sit on opposite sides of the group throughout the leaf viewing, where they can keep each-other in full view at all times and won't be required to interact too much. She has brought her embroidery, so ends up spending most of the event talking to Aburame Akitsu about moths and having several more drawn for her, life-sized and in colour, on spare sheets of paper. Kita is particularly pleased by the two moths that are a similar colour to her tensan as well as by the large and beautifully detailed picture of an Atlas moth that Akitsu-san has drawn for her, although of course the Aburame calls it something different.

Akitsu-san offers to write to her with more drawings of interesting moths, which Kita accepts. It's an odd basis for a friendship –and she suspects that to an Aburame, all moths are interesting– but it's not a bad one and this may well be the form Aburame Shijin intended for her correspondence over caterpillar care to take, so she will at least have somebody knowledgeable to talk to about eggs, hatching temperatures, leaf age and caterpillar illnesses and parasites now.

Inemi spends the event chatting to several of Murasaki-sama's ladies-in-waiting, presumably extracting court gossip. At the end of the leaf viewing Kita is invited to a Nagori-no-chaji in two days' time by Mekatsura-san, who is one of Murasaki-sama's nieces; Mekatsura-san's mother is one of the daimyo's sisters.

Mekatsura-san is much of an age with Murasaki-sama and is also married. Kita isn't sure who her husband is, although it's probably been mentioned; she will have to ask Inemi about it later, so she can be properly informed at the tea she may be attending. She won't be able to take Madara along to this one –it's another ladies only event– but seeing as another lady-in-waiting has extended a similar invitation to Mito-san, Kita suspects that everybody at court will be either holding or attending such events on the last day of the month. It is the end of the tea season after all –well the change of the tea season– so it is likely that Madara will have his own invitations.

Kita is suitably humble and grateful for her invitation, but does not commit. She will have to consult with Tajima-sama, in case there is some other tea ceremony he has invitations to that he would rather she attend.

Tajima-sama does indeed have other invitations, as well as instructions: they will be attending the Nagori-no-chaji hosted by the Akimichi clan, as Akimichi Mao has sent an invitation for Kita personally. Seeing as the Akimichi heiress is betrothed to the heir of one of the daimyo's most powerful allies, cultivating a personal connection with her is considered a priority; the daimyo's family has not taken wives from that lineage in several generations, so it is very likely that one of Mao's daughters or granddaughters will be married to the daimyo's son or grandson.

Kita can tell this is not a connection that Tajima-sama anticipated, but he is nothing if not opportunistic. She personally suspects that she is one of very few people outside the Akimichi who has not made disparaging comments about Mao's girth and weight; Akimichi are solidly built, whether they are trained in their clan's secret techniques or not, and being sturdy is _not_ currently fashionable for court ladies.

Not commenting was however _not_ a matter of personal virtue; remembering as she does, Kita has an unusual perspective and knows that thinness is not next to either godliness or virtue; bodies just are and each one is lovely on its own merits. Certain people may have specific preferences, but that is on them, not on whom or what they desire.

Mao-chan's a lovely woman; Kita would be very happy to write to her regularly. The invitation details that Kita will be _personally_ hosted by Mao-chan –a great honour– and is invited to bring any other women in the Uchiha party. Seeing as Inemi and Asami missed out on the last Akimichi dinner, Kita is sure they will both be delighted. Asami especially; she will want to try and guess what it is the Akimichi do that makes their food taste so good.

Madara and Izuna have a similar invitation from Nara Shikari, and Tajima-sama has one from Akimichi Chōtai; the Yamanaka and Nara clan heads will doubtless be present at the chaji with the Outguard Head, just as Yamanaka Inosuke will be at Shikari-san's tea with Mao-chan's younger brother Chōkō. All very neat and mannerly, as in each case the Uchiha will be in the position of first guests. Kita knows already that they will have to reciprocate and that she will be hosting it.

"I have already invited the three clan heads to a Kuchikiri-no-chaji the Uchiha clan will be hosting on the seventh," Tajima-sama tells her; Kita spares herself a single second to internally bewail the necessity of performing the _most formal tea possible_ before three extremely important guests before stiffening her spine and bowing her acceptance.

"Will Asami be available to cook, Tajima-sama?" Asami is a brilliant cook; something about trap fields and cookery having a lot in common. Kita couldn't possibly comment; she's not sure how Asami came to that conclusion in the first place. She does like cooking and is reasonably good at it, but she's not got an instinct for harmonious combinations like Asami does.

"Of course; Tsuyoshi will be accompanying her to the market the afternoon before. She has requested you provide a cold-box seal."

Kita ducks her head; of course she will. This talk of tea has given her an idea. An idea she has no authority whatsoever to carry out, but would provide a base to build more of Madara's dream of peace upon while also causing trouble for the Senju. "Tajima-sama, I have a request."

"Speak."

"I would like to host a chaji tomorrow and invite Senju Tobirama."

Tajima-sama stiffens at the mention of 'Senju' but going by the raised eyebrows seems reluctantly curious about her specification of Butsuma's younger son. "Why?"

Kita sits up and makes careful, steady eye-contact. "Having met Hashirama-san, I can say with confidence that he will be a dreadful Clan Head," she says flatly, "and that his father likely knows it. If Butsuma-san has any wits at all he will already be training Tobirama-san to take up the responsibilities of leadership, so that his clan will be well cared-for after his death. He cannot feasibly disinherit Hashirama-san, not when he is so personally powerful, but his firstborn's disregard for protocol and thoughtless acceptance of his brother's loyalty means that it is in fact possible for Butsuma-san to train up his younger son in all the practical necessities of governance without splitting the Senju down the middle."

Tajima-sama is paying _considerable_ attention to her right now and it's deeply unnerving. Kita soldiers on.

"Izuna-kun speaks regularly of Tobirama-san and assures me he is a genius, and Madara has commented repeatedly on his preference for practicality over honour; as he rises to greater authority and power he will become an increasingly dangerous opponent, even if his brother does not allow him free rein on the battlefield. He will have control of the Senju finances and mission selections and that will allow him considerable scope to both strengthen the Senju and weaken the Uchiha." Kita takes a breath.

"I wish to drive a wedge between him and his brother and father. I want to make him question their worthiness of his loyalty and the merit of being enemies with our clan at all. I _know_ we cannot trust Butsuma-san to uphold a ceasefire unless the daimyo is leaning on him, but Hashirama-san has been vocal about wanting to reduce hostilities and even if it does not last, such a thing _would_ benefit the Uchiha, especially if we were able to keep ourselves from being the ones to reopen the conflict." All she knows of Tobirama says he is _practical_ as much as that he loves his brother and clan with thoughtless loyalty. Well, it is time to make him actually _think_ about how worthy they are of that rather than assume.

"You would make of the Senju boy an honoured guest of the Uchiha?"

Kita shakes her head quickly. "Second guest: Madara would be first, Izuna third. A formal environment to provide structure that cannot be challenged without causing insult, no expense spared on hospitality, the necessity of sharing food and making polite conversation with your sons so that he cannot help seeing them as more than merely enemies… and must drink the tea Madara stole from under his nose a few years back."

Tajima-sama chuckles. "An insult wrapped up in honour and formality, bestowing favour on the younger son to seed strife with the older. Very well, Kita; you may have your chaji. Take Madara down to the city to carry your purchases and explain your plan to him; I will see to issuing the invitation immediately and personally." He is visibly looking forward to it; delivering the invitation in person means that Tobirama will not be able to politely refuse, especially since being a second son means he's unlikely to have a more pressing engagement lined up.

"Thank you, Tajima-sama." Now she has less than a day to set up a formal meal; well this will at least make a good trial run for the Kuchikiri-no-chaji in a little over a week…

* * *

Madara _cannot believe_ Kita has convinced his father to let her host a _formal tea_ for Senju Tobirama. _Cannot believe_. He understands why she picked Tobirama –he's more predictable and there's the chakra issue as well– and resolves to sit on Izuna until he calms down and recognises what Kita's trying to do. Well, at least _some_ of the things she's trying to do; his betrothed gave him a dizzying list of reasons she _could_ have for doing this –if one were of a suspicious bent and didn't trust that she really does just want Tobirama to see them as _people_ rather than merely enemies– while she was buying ingredients and rush-ordering wagashi from the Akimichi-approved bakery. It's a little scary how all those potential motivations ring true enough to be convincing; is this what being Homeguard Head does to a person's mind?

Once back at the guest house Kita vanishes into the kitchen with her ingredients, then emerges to demand _all_ the scrolls, vases and ornaments that were brought along for this purpose. She then retreats to the bedroom with her hoard, leaving Madara to drag his incoherently raging little brother into one of the other bedrooms and sit on him.

"Just, why is she doing this?! Why is Father _letting_ her do this?!" Izuna finally demands, flopping limply across the tatami. Madara doesn't let go; Izuna is sneaky.

"Father is letting her because she phrased it in a way that implies doing so will make life difficult for the Senju," Madara says bluntly. "Which it will, but that's not _why_ she's doing it."

"Why Tobirama?! I _hate_ Tobirama!"

Madara sighs. "Otōto, Tobirama is _your age_. He most certainly was _not_ involved in any of our little brothers' deaths."

"That's _not the point!_ " Izuna's voice cracks, indicating that yes, it is very _much_ the point. Having ascertained that, Madara moves on:

"Practically speaking, Kita cannot host Hashirama; he never minds his chakra and she'd choke on it again. Also he's rude, which she doesn't want to deal with in a private formal setting. Also if she invited him he'd have to be first guest, so his rudeness would ruin the whole event."

Izuna huffs. "Fine, so she can't invite Hashirama. That does not explain _why she is doing this at all!_ "

Madara shifts his weight, casually grinding his brother's face into the tatami. "Kita wants the Uchiha clan to be prosperous, which requires peace or at least a degree of harmony, and is doing everything in her power to achieve that," he says calmly. "She does not trust Butsuma to look past his avarice, does not trust Hashirama's various statements when he's never put a single day's work into _building_ peace and is therefore seeking a third avenue. She is also cultivating more personal connections with the Aburame and the Akimichi; there are more clans out there than the Senju, after all, and lasting peace requires the involvement of each and every one of them. She does not know Tobirama except through us, and we have given her reason to trust his practicality and his adherence to protocol in formal situations."

"So she's inviting him because she knows he will be polite and wants to find out what the required circumstances are for him to consider the _practicality_ of peace," Izuna grumbles. "Get _off_ me, Nii-san. I'm not going to disrespect Kita-chan or dishonour our clan by being rude at a tea ceremony, even if I _am_ going to have to share food with that Senju."

Madara gets off and offers his brother a hand up, which Izuna takes. "She's hosting the Akimichi, Nara and Yamanaka Heads on the seventh."

"Kuchikiri-no-chaji?" Izuna winces theatrically. "No wonder she wants a practice run." That will be a _large_ event, no doubt held in the main room of the guest house rather than in the tiny tea room, and with _all_ the Heads and heirs of all four clans present. That's ten people to serve meals to, ten people to serve tea to and all with the utmost precision and composure.

Kita gets terribly nervous about her tea ceremony. At this point Madara's sure his father makes her host them as punishment for causing political snarl-ups and surprising side-effects, regardless of how beneficial those things are to the clan. The thing is, she's not actually as bad at it as she thinks she is; Father wouldn't let her host if she was.

Not that she'd believe him if he told her that.

The next morning begins early for Madara, due to Kita waking up before dawn to go over her choice of scroll and tea bowl again.

"Have you picked a vase?" He asks, seeing all five of them lined up on her chest in the lantern light.

"I have to pick flowers _first_ Madara," Kita scolds absently.

"Then get dressed and do that," Madara suggests; "they won't wilt in half a day."

"Point." Kita puts everything safely away, grabs her wash bag and slips out of the room; Madara leans an arm over his eyes and takes a deep breath. Today he is taking a big step towards peace. Today he is taking a _public_ step towards peace; he knows better than to believe this has not already reached the daimyo's ears. If it shames Hashirama into actually _doing_ something, all the better, but Madara is trying to be realistic there and well… he's not counting on it doing anything to spur his friend into action.

It might make a difference to _Tobirama_ though, which would be just as good. Kita's right that he's probably going to be doing a lot of the detail work involved in leading the Senju after Butsuma dies. What shape that takes depends very much on how innovative Tobirama is; he may simply follow in his father's footsteps as he's been taught or he might come up with new ways to do things, which would no doubt be creative and difficult to counter.

Sighing, Madara abandons sleep and heads for the dining room. He can make breakfast today, just so Kita and the other women have one less thing to worry about. It won't be fancy, but he can grill fish and _everybody_ knows how to cook rice. Chopping up pickles is straightforward too.

Okay, so he's watched Kita cook breakfast with his sharingan a few times; it still means he can _do_ _it_ now. Why have the rest of the Outguard never considered doing the same? Izuna can at least prepare more than just rice balls and tea now as well.

* * *

A chaji has a certain rhythm to it, one which Kita is by now fairly familiar with even though she has never performed one in a chashitsu before. The guests arrive –Madara in the lead as the main guest and her primary dance partner in the ritual that is a tea ceremony– and are greeted. Time is given to take off coats and she serves her guests a suitable infusion, a roasted barley tea in this instance. Not the most expensive possible alternative, but suitable for the season.

The guests then file out again to wait on the bench under the arbour while she prepares the tea room and makes sure that the food is all perfect; she can sense that while tense, everything is still peaceful outside.

Kita does not let her mind linger on what they might be talking about; she has to focus on hosting.

Walk out, bow to guests, allow guests to perform the ritual purification and let themselves into the chashitsu through the low door, walking around and letting herself into the tiny back room and waiting for Izuna –as last guest– to close the low door loudly, which is the signal that they are ready for her.

Enter the tea room, greet each guest in turn –Tobirama seems to be settling in the face of intensely ritualised formality– and answer Madara's questions about her chosen scroll and small additional ornament; questions he already knows the answers to, but is still required to ask. Kita then arranges the appropriate ash in the brazier –straw ash, as it is the very end of the brazier season– adds charcoal from the basket –Uchiha charcoal brought along for this purpose– and the tiny incense chips, then lights it with a simple chakra exercise that is an exclusively Uchiha addition to the tea ceremony; Tobirama tenses very briefly, but settles again as the scent of agarwood fills the room.

As the scent fades it is time to serve the meal, with its personal trays loaded with separate little bowls of soup and simmered vegetables and rice –cooked with chestnuts since they are in season– and a little plate of sashimi. Then there are the shared bowls, which are placed more centrally: a serving bowl of grilled fish, a pitcher of hot water containing more rice and a dish of pickles.

Kita has already eaten. The host does not eat and anyway, she _needs_ to eat before doing something this long and formal or else she can't keep up.

When they have finished she presents the plate of small delicacies and the sake, which she drinks with them.

She then presents another dish as they finish what it on their trays, entrusting this one to Madara with a suitable phrase which he replies to, places the dish in the proper place and serves himself from it before handing it on to Tobirama with another ritual phrase. By this point Tea Manners are in full flow and almost automatic; Tobirama replies, accepts, serves himself and then hands on to Izuna, who does likewise. Kita serves another round of sake to drink with the food, waits for them to finish –and to serve themselves a little more rice and pickles– then offers Madara another dish and serves more sake. The process repeats itself.

Kita loses all sense of time; she is Hosting Tea, time is irrelevant. The fire in the brazier burns out; the meal ends. Kita changes the charcoal with more ritual words, then presents fresh sweets to Madara with a request that after eating them he retire outside. He accepts with the appropriate formula, serves himself a sweet onto one of the sheets of washi provided and passes the serving dish onwards to Tobirama. Once they have all eaten and the plate has been passed back, the three men return outside to the arbour so she can set the kettle on the brazier, tidy away the dishes, sweep the tea room, open the shutters and replace the scroll and ornament with a vase containing a suitably seasonal plant. Bamboo shoots in this case; this is a late autumn chaji and she is reaching the end of this year's tea. In theory.

Kita leaves the tea room for the service area and sounds a gong to call her guests back inside; again, she gives them time to purify themselves and examine the new decorations. Then the door is closed once more and she enters with Tajima-sama's tea box.

This is not her home, so she is allowed to bring the tea box into the tea room as it is and lift each item out of it in turn. She has already set it up so that everything is exactly as it needs to be for this specific ceremony. Then the next stage of the chaji begins, with more words and bows exchanged and then the smooth, precise ritual of preparing the thick tea.

Everybody in the chashitsu is utterly calm as she whisks the tea in the chawan. There is complete, almost meditative harmony with her, one-another and the ongoing ceremony.

Kita serves the tea; Madara bows with more ritual words to her, drinks a carefully calculated portion of the tea, responds to her question on the quality of the tea, takes another sip, wipes the rim of the bowl, and sets the bowl down to his left with a suitable formula addressed to Tobirama, who offers the suitable response –asking Madara if he's sure he doesn't want a little more– before lifting it to his lips and drinking himself.

There is no tension or hesitation as Madara compliments the tea on Tobirama's behalf after his first sip. Madara's ritualised follow-up questions on the name and provenance of this tea do elicit a faint stutter in the Senju's chakra, but Tobirama finishes his third of the tea without incident, wipes the rim with steady hands and sets the bowl down beside Izuna with the appropriate formula.

Tobirama will have put together the name and provenance of the tea with the tea merchants he failed to protect a few years ago; of course this is theoretically _newer_ tea, but that it is from the same place and has the same name is in itself suggestive.

Madara then proceeds to ask questions about the sweets eaten earlier while Izuna is drinking his share of the tea, enabling Kita to reveal the Akimichi-approved establishment they were purchased from, then moves on to the flowers and the vase as Izuna finishes and sets the bowl back beside Tobirama, who moves it along to beside Madara. The bowl is then passed forwards with another suitable verbal formula so Kita can rinse it –briefly, this bowl is a _very_ old Uchiha heirloom– and then Madara asks to be allowed to examine it more closely.

Kita dries the chawan, wraps it in the appropriate cloth and passes it back across the tatami to Madara, who takes a few moments to admire it carefully before setting it down so Tobirama can do likewise. The bowl makes the journey to Izuna as Tobirama quietly murmurs something to Madara, who relays the question to Kita: the age and provenance of the chawan. Kita answers that it is a clan relic inherited from the extinct Ōtsutsuki clan –knowing all these details is part of the tea ceremony so she has memorised little scripts for every such item the Uchiha owns– and then accepts the bowl back before announcing that she has finished for the time being.

The guests do not have to do anything at this point; she is simply making clear that she is about to make the thin tea, which will be served in individual bowls along with wagashi on individual plates, and that formality will soon be reduced. Kita rekindles the fire in the brazier to heat more water, leaves the room, returns with the sweets, announces her intent to prepare the thin tea and sets about doing so.

Once everybody has been served their own bowl of thin tea and sweet the formalities are suspended and the guests may talk among themselves. The conversation centres on Akimichi cookery, particularly their sweets; Kita suspects that is for the best. Once everybody has drunk their tea Madara states that nobody wants any more, which is her cue to offer assent and agree that no more tea will be served. The tea container and scoop are then admired as the chawan was earlier, handed back and then Kita bows her guests out of the building.

The chaji is over. Her guests will collect their coats and leave.

Kita needs to go lie down with a cloth over her eyes for a few hours. She _cannot believe_ she just did all that without anything going wrong.

* * *

As they step out of the waiting room with their coats on and glance at the sky there is a sudden profound awkwardness as all three shinobi realise they have just spent four hours in each-other's company, eating and drinking tea together without giving a single thought to the fact that until now they have only faced each-other across the battlefield. Kita is truly a magnificent tea host to be able to impose such a strong sense of unconscious harmony on her guests.

Izuna cracks first. "I'll go help clear up," he mutters, turning and vanishing around the back of the tea room.

Madara turns to his guest –because Tobirama is still his guest, being in technical Uchiha territory– and bows, taking refuge in formality. "Please allow me to escort you back to the gate."

Tobirama murmurs polite thanks, seemingly as grateful for the structure as Madara is. The white-haired Senju makes it two-thirds of the way along the winding path out of the garden before speaking up again.

"Do the Uchiha _really_ buy their matcha from the same supplier they once comprehensively sabotaged for a mission?"

Madara feels his lips twitch up into a smirk. "The mission was to 'dispose' of the tea so it could not compete for the annual contract to the temples and the daimyo," he says mildly. "Burning it all would have been a waste; it's not like you can _buy_ ceremonial-grade matcha for anything less than its weight in gold." If fact it frequently costs _more_ than its weight in gold.

Tobirama _twitches_ , turning to stare at him. "It's the _same tea_?"

"Tea keeps remarkably well in seal-space," Madara says lightly. "Doesn't degrade at all."

"Was all this set up to remind me of that failure?"

Madara stops. "You can take it that way if you want to," he notes flatly, strangling his irritation at how _dense_ Tobirama is being right now, "but Kita-san served it to you because it really _is_ the best tea in Fire Country, and there's no reason for the clan to _buy_ matcha when what we've got stored is better than anything else available on the market." Buying lower-grade tea just to serve to the Senju _would_ have been an insult.

Tobirama bows shortly. "My apologies for insulting your betrothed; it was not my intention."

Good. Madara turns and leads the way to the edge of the guest house's grounds.

"Why would the Uchiha invite a Senju to a chaji at all?" Tobirama asks, pausing in the gateway. Evidently this is really bothering him.

"Kita persuaded my father to host you; it was entirely her idea. She purchased and arranged everything."

Tobirama's face does something complicated as he visibly reassesses his entire mental image of Madara's betrothed. The Senju does not ask why _Kita_ invited him to the chaji; her choice of meal, tea bowl, scroll and other decorative elements were a clear declaration of intent for those with the wits to pay attention. Harmony, complete with proof that it is not only possible between their clans but well within reach.

Clearly Tobirama _was_ paying attention. Well that's something.

Tobirama bows again. "Please pass on my thanks to Kita-san for a most pleasant tea." He leaves, vanishing quickly around a corner. Madara waits for a few moments more, then lets his glee surface and does a little victory dance.

Peace _is_ possible!

Then he turns around and hurries back up to the guest house to change and set up the futon so Kita can lie down for a bit. The rush of having the entire event go off without a hitch has to be hitting her too.

* * *

No matter how formal and elaborate the ceremony, hosting the Kuchikiri-no-chaji for the entire Akimichi entourage and all the Uchiha with Akimichi Chōtai as first guest is actually less hard on her nerves than serving tea to Madara, Tobirama and Izuna in the chashitsu had been. Kita's not entirely sure why; maybe it's to do with Akimichi-sama being so _warm_ even when he's being formal? Or is she just becoming gradually desensitised to the pressures of performing tea ceremony?

Either way, it seems to go well and Tajima-sama is pleased with the results, which is all she can ask for.

Kita hosts several more teas in the following week –just chakai, not chaji– for a range of different people, and attends the Minister of Sericulture's leaf-viewing party with the rest of the Uchiha. The Senju are _not_ at that particular event –Tajima-sama is smug– but the Hyūga _are_ , which is surprising and yet somehow also unsurprising. With all the white silk that clan wears, that they weave their own makes a certain amount of sense.

It also appears that Kita has accidentally started a craze for _any_ kind of shinobi-made silk as much as for wild silk, which does go a way to explain the incense party and associated gift. During the leaf-viewing Hyūga Hinagiku introduces Kita to her husband and her father-in-law, which goes well enough. In that it doesn't go badly and Hyūga turn out to be even more entrenched in formality and propriety than Tajima-sama on his worst days.

Then she's invited to spend part of the day with Murasaki-sama –and the hints that the lady is leaning on her husband so that Tajima-sama will agree to remain in the capital for longer are somewhat terrifying– and gets some more embroidery done, as well as talking to the ladies-in-waiting about what might look good embroidered on her new red obi. That leads to more talk on fashion and symbolism, which is a reassuringly neutral subject and really makes the afternoon fly; she doesn't realise how late it's getting until Tsuyoshi shows up to escort her back for dinner.

Kita doesn't _want_ to stay in the capital for longer; it's horrendously expensive, she misses Benten and she wants to have her birthday at _home_. Wants to be able to spend the day sitting quietly with Madara and eating yōkan with her sisters, not dolled up in her most formal kimono and having to smile politely at a parade of strangers showering her with meaningless trinkets to make her feel indebted to them.

She is an unambitious homebody and she wants to go _home_.

Of course, nobody here cares what she wants. Well _Madara_ cares, but he's not in a position to do much about it; he's not leading their delegation and Tajima-sama is far less interested in her comfort than he is in her obedience. It's entirely possible that if she made her feelings known he'd order her to stay on specifically to remind her that she is under his authority.

Instead, that evening Kita mentions over dinner that she'd like to spend the following day working on some seal ideas. Tajima-sama inquires after her objectives –privacy seals that specifically block long-range sensing– and agrees she can take the whole day off to work on them.

She actually has those seals pretty much worked out already; they've just been sitting in her work box waiting for a good time to test them formally. Benten was her test subject –not that the five-year-old noticed– and oh. Benten is six now. Kita has missed her little girl's sixth birthday. It's not as significant as her seventh birthday –Kita already has an obi ready to give her for that– but it's still important. _All_ birthdays are important when you can remember fewer of them than you can count on one hand.

At bedtime Kita reminds Madara of the pocky festival flyer and asks him to take her to see it. When he teases her about her sudden interest in a sweet he knows she doesn't much care for she admits that she wants to buy something special for Benten for missing her birthday and he immediately apologises.

"Of course we can go; Otōsama will agree if I ask, especially since it was the palace that brought the event to our attention in the first place." He squeezes her shoulder. "And honestly, I could do with a day away from the constant politics as well. Izuna's really interested in the subtleties and nuances, but I just find it all so _irritating_. Why can't people be honest and say what they mean?"

"Because if they came right out and asked 'what's in it for me?' you would get offended," Kita replies dryly, then squirms when he tickles her in retaliation. "Sorry, sorry! Stop it!"

Madara stops and very deliberately rolls on top of her, rubbing his nose against hers. "I know I'm impatient and unreasonable," he informs her with as much offended dignity as is possible when grappling in bed in the pitch black, "there's no need to rub it in."

He's heavy, a solid slab of muscle pinning her to the futon. Kita tilts her head up so she can kiss him on the chin. "I just want to go home," she confesses softly.

Madara rests his elbows on the pillows and shifts his weight a little so he's not squashing her anymore. "I would rather be at home too," he agrees quietly. "I miss my hawks." He pauses. "I miss being able to just wander into the house and spend several hours sitting with you doing nothing in particular; the past three weeks have just been expensive social event after expensive social event and having to be formal all the time with everybody."

As a clan, the Uchiha are not particularly formal. They all recognise that formality has its place and politeness is important for communicating respect, but amongst themselves –especially among friends– everybody is familiar. Particularly in the Outguard; manners aren't that useful on the battlefield and are entirely out of place when ten people are huddling together in a bunker that only sleeps five. Coarse humour goes further there, apparently.

"Then how about we go down to the pocky festival in casual clothes?" Kita suggests. "Nothing to say you're a clan heir or anything; just regular everyday civilian dress, two sweethearts out together."

Madara shifts a little; if it wasn't dark she'd be able to see him blushing, she can tell. "Is that what we are then?"

Kita grins. "Madara, dearest, you're lying on top of me _in bed_. Calling us 'sweethearts' is probably a significant understateme–"

He shuts her up with a kiss; Kita has no objections whatsoever to the change in activity.

* * *

Madara is not happy. The daimyo's son's Shichi-go-san was yesterday and they should be packing up and saying their farewells to the daimyo, but it's not happening. Father looks like he'd _prefer_ that it were happening, but it isn't. That's not good.

Kita confided her fears about Murasaki-sama demanding that she stay at court for longer while they were at the pocky festival, and while Madara has done his best to comfort her, there isn't much he _can_ do if the daimyo decides to humour his wife's request. Well, not much he can do that wouldn't rebound horribly on the Uchiha and create all kinds of trouble.

Madara suspects his father is also trying to think of something that will let him extricate Kita from Murasaki-sama's grasp without offending the daimyo, but evidently he hasn't come up with something yet either. It's terribly frustrating; he knows exactly how to extract a clansman from a battlefield, but this? This he lacks the skills and framework for. He's trying his best but he has no talent for it at _all._

Izuna has a better idea of the layers and nuances, but that does not translate into having an exit strategy. Not unless Madara can turn Izuna's explanations into one himself.

"I think she likes Kita's honesty," his younger brother explains quietly as they sit on the engawa looking out at the drizzle. "Truth isn't really a currency at court, so that Kita _is_ so honest is something of a novelty, especially since she's so polite about it; generally speaking, people use words to wound. Kita doesn't. I mean, I'm very sure she _can_ because nobody can be that kind without knowing exactly what they have to leave out, but the point is that she _doesn't_ do it. Everybody at court wants something from the daimyo and his wife, except, apparently, your betrothed. And that's…" Izuna frowns. "I want to say 'interesting' but that's not quite right. 'Fascinating' might be a better word."

"So the daimyo's wife wants Kita to stay around so she can find out what she wants, because everybody wants something at court," Madara summarises, "and not having an agenda is suspicious. Except that Kita just wants to go home."

"Basically," Izuna agrees, rolling his eyes. "Really, Father should have expected something like this after what happened with the silk."

"Why?"

Izuna huffs. "Idiot. Kita _gave_ Murasaki-sama enough of her tensan to make a court robe, then _didn't ask for anything in return_. Of _course_ that was going to pique interest. With the Minister of Sericulture we got good paperwork and financial opportunities out of it, so all business as usual by court standards, but Kita didn't request a counter-favour from Murasaki-sama. So Murasaki-sama is trying to work out why, or failing that to arrange one so as not to find herself having to provide a favour later. Except she doesn't know Kita well enough to have a clue what your contrary betrothed actually _wants_ , so is trying to give her what other well-born young women want."

"Like extra time in the capital to be seen at court," Madara realises, feeling slow. "So Kita needs to ask for something?"

"Something not too large but personal," Izuna says firmly. "Not a clan thing, which is what's tripping Otōsama up." He sniffs. "Something Kita wants for herself but can't get, that Murasaki-sama _can_."

Oh. Well. Not easy at all, then. "Does Kita know this?"

"You tell her," Izuna mutters shortly. "Your betrothed, your problem."

"It's already turning into a clan problem," Madara points out sharply, elbowing his brother in the ribs. "The Senju are leaving tomorrow; the daimyo's already given them permission." He knows this because Hashirama ambushed him during the festival yesterday and babbled for some time about how he's going to be marrying his Uzumaki at New Year. Apparently Mito's actually two years older than him.

But hell, it really _is_ a problem, isn't it? Kita doesn't just _ask_ for things. Well she does, but they're little things. Attainable things. Things she might be able to get for herself, if she waited and put off other things she wants or needs more urgently. If there are things she wants that are out of reach, she certainly doesn't _talk_ about them. Not that he's heard at least.

She talks about peace. What does it say about his beloved, that she sees peace as _attainable_?

His brother grumbles, not making eye-contact. Madara sighs, shoves Izuna off and gets to his feet. "I'll talk to her," he agrees, "but next time you see something everybody else has missed, _you_ tell them."

Izuna mutters something inaudible under his breath, which Madara decides is enough to count as agreement.

Explaining to Kita that they're stuck in the capital until she can manage to be selfish enough to ask the daimyo's wife for a personal favour is both surprisingly easy and horribly hard. Kita listens attentively to his awkward, stumbling explanation, there's a split-second's pause and she bursts out laughing. The laughter turns to tears very quickly.

"Should have guessed," she mutters bitterly into his shirt collar as he holds her in his lap and hugs her tightly. "Nothing's ever free; not even the things that should be."

Madara doesn't know what to say to that, so doesn't say anything. He wraps his arms and chakra around her as she weeps her pain to numbness and hides her face as though the world will go away if she ignores it hard enough.

"Madara?" She asks eventually, forehead still pressed against his shoulder.

"Yes, Kita-koi?" It's a very new nickname, but he knows she likes it so he's going to keep using it, if probably only in private.

"Can you go down to the city this afternoon and buy me a very small quantity of the most expensive origami paper you can find, please?" She sounds so tired and defeated that Madara wants to hit something. "And a cheap instruction pamphlet with some models you haven't seen before."

"Of course." Generally speaking, the Uchiha tend to use their own hemp paper for origami –it is frivolous and wasteful but also fun and useful for teaching dexterity– since buying expensive paper just to fold up is a bit excessive. If an Uchiha wants coloured paper they talk to the clan's papermakers and pay extra for them to dye a batch.

"I will tell Tajima-sama that I am taking Murasaki-sama up on her standing invitation and visiting her tomorrow," Kita continues, "and that I am going to humiliate myself while bending the truth slightly, so as to give her an opportunity for generosity so she will hopefully allow us to leave."

Madara winces. No Uchiha likes humiliation; it _rankles_ , prickling under the skin like stinging leaves and never quite going away. "I'm sorry," he tells her uselessly. He really wishes there was _something_ he could kill that would make her stop feeling like this.

"Just, please buy the paper." She sighs. "And could you make me tea, please?"

Madara kisses her hairline. "Anything you want," he promises rashly. "We could have matcha." They have enough of it and having to swallow clan pride to let a pampered civilian lady like Murasaki-sama _pity_ her is something Kita most certainly deserves the best possible tea for. The best possible _everything_ for.

Kita chuckles, but it sounds like it hurts. "Will you serve me tea before you go, then?"

"Of course." He kisses her cheek; she tastes like tears and her eyes are red. "Want to freshen up while I lay things out?"

"Not a full ceremony, please," Kita requests softly. "Just tea."

"Just tea," Madara agrees. "Then I'll go down to the city and buy you the most expensive origami paper I can get my hands on and a few pamphlets of new models." And sweets. Fresh sweets. Kita most certainly deserves _all_ the fresh sweets.

Kita bites her lower lip. "And, could you come? You don't have to listen when I'm talking to Murasaki-sama, but she did say I could bring you and I'd like you to be there."

"Of course I'll come." Madara feels he is utterly useless as backup in court situations, but if Kita wants him to be there he will be there. "Not sure what use I'll be though."

She pokes him in the ribs. "You are providing me with moral support, so I don't lose my nerve, and giving me an excuse to leave early if necessary."

Ah, so he's the exit strategy. Well that he _can_ do; whatever she's got planned is definitely going to upset her, so once she's done what she needs to he can 'notice' that she's 'tired' and insist on bringing her back to the guest house to 'rest'. Playing the overprotective betrothed is a role he's very happy to take on.

* * *

Kita doesn't want to do this, but the world has never cared very much about what she wants. Madara is right, her thoughtless gift of silk _did_ start this so of course she is the one who has to bare her heart and give the daimyo's wife the opportunity to feel generous and gracious towards the innocent little country bumpkin she has been cultivating.

It makes her heart ache, that people can't just accept gifts and move on. There's no _obligation_ behind a gift; it's just a gift, given without expectation of anything in return! That's why it's a _gift_ and not a transaction! But when gifts become expected they also become transactional, and it is _expected_ to give the daimyo and his wife gifts.

Except that Kita did not give her gift in that context, but Murasaki-sama nonetheless feels indebted on some level and is trying to pay back what she feels she owes.

Taking Madara along helps. He knows what she's going to do, he'll be there to get her out afterwards and help her feel less dirty about doing this at all. And he has most certainly bought her the _loveliest_ origami paper in existence. It has the most tasteful and intricate printed designs and they all have gold leaf on!

Sitting in the late autumn sunshine as beside her Madara sketches something –he's taken to art as a 'peaceful' hobby and is really surprisingly good at it– Kita carefully sets out her new origami paper to one side and gets a much larger sheet of used hemp paper out of her box, then starts dividing up the calligraphy practice sheet into squares. She is going to turn the pretty paper into an origami mobile, but first she needs to practice the new models on something that won't get ruined if she fumbles a fold.

As expected, the contrast of the pretty paper sitting in full view and the scrap paper she is folding with eventually attracts Murasaki-sama's attention.

"Oh, what lovely paper, Kita-chan!"

"Thank you, Murasaki-sama; Madara-san bought it for me."

"A man of taste," Murasaki-sama teases, fluttering her fan. "But surely such a gift is for using, not merely admiring?"

"Oh I will use it, Murasaki-sama; I just need to practice the models first, so I don't waste it."

"Waste it, Kita-chan? Origami's charm is in its ephemeral nature."

Kita ducks her head and glances at Madara, who of course notices; he knows he's here to support her, so that's primarily what he's focusing on. No matter how engrossed in his art he appears to be. "Might I fetch you tea, Kita-san?"

"That would be lovely, Madara-san." He sets his pen aside and gets up, crossing the room towards where a brazier is set up.

"Well, Kita-chan?" Murasaki-sama asks gently, having noticed that she didn't want to have this conversation with her betrothed in 'earshot'. Of course Madara can still hear them just fine; he has chakra. But Murasaki-sama probably doesn't know it lets him do that.

Kita fiddles with the carp she has just folded. "The Uchiha are a shinobi clan, Murasaki-sama; noble yes, but not truly affluent. There are few opportunities to enjoy the ephemeral, unless of course it relates to food or wildflowers. I enjoy origami, but to waste such lovely paper when I know it cost my betrothed so much… I couldn't do that. I'm going to turn the models into a mobile, so they can be enjoyed for longer."

"That's a lovely plan, Kita-chan," Murasaki-sama says warmly. "Do you do much origami?"

"Not _that_ much," Kita admits, "but I am raising Madara-san's little cousin you see, her mother died and she's only just six, and it's something fun to do with her. It's also something to make use of old calligraphy practice paper." She sighs, eyes dropping. "We live on the edge of the mountains you see, Murasaki-sama, so the clan can harvest wood to make charcoal for steel and for ink. It means we can't make much washi, and to use it frivolously when there are shōji to repair and official letters to write…" She shakes her head. "Washi is for important things."

"So what would you do if you had more washi, Kita-chan?" Murasaki-sama asks coaxingly.

Kita smiles. "I would write more poetry, Murasaki-sama," she confides quietly. "My haiku make Madara-san laugh and he needs more joy in his life. I would also make origami and paper dolls with the coloured sheets, and write letters on marbled ones. I would paint more too; it's hard to paint on washi when the paper I'm used to behaves so differently. I would also write out some of the stories I made up for my younger siblings' amusement." She pauses. "I do love stories, especially the ones with prints illustrating them. Madara-san gave me his mother's book of folktales and it's so much fun to read. He buys me prints too, when he can find them."

"Such an attentive beloved you have, Kita-chan," Murasaki-sama teases as Madara returns with a pot and cups on a tray. Three cups, not just two.

"Would you also like tea, Murasaki-sama?" He asks politely, lowering himself to the tatami and setting the tray down.

"Really, so very attentive," she coos. "Tea would be lovely, Madara-san. Now what's this I hear about you laughing at poor Kita-chan's poetry? Is it truly so bad?"

Madara shifts awkwardly as he pours the tea. "Not _bad_ , Murasaki-sama," he protests. "Kita-san's use of imagery is simply unconventional. Her writing is perpetually surprising and the allusions are often idiosyncratic."

"Oh?"

Madara glances at her –asking for permission– as he scoots her teacup towards her. Kita signs encouragement where Murasaki-sama can't see it before picking up her tea.

"She once wrote a haiku describing a tea bowl as threatening, Murasaki-sama," he says with aplomb.

Murasaki-san laughs behind her fan, bright and surprised. "Truly?"

"Oh yes." He glances at Kita again before continuing: "It had never occurred to me before that a tea bowl could be threatening. Then I remembered that when Kita-san was learning tea ceremony, her primary guest was my father."

"All becomes clear!" Murasaki-sama sounds delighted. "Your father is quite a stern man, Madara-san; perhaps even intimidating for a child to learn from. Oh, but what a delightful allusion! Idiosyncratic indeed!"

"Thank you, Murasaki-sama," Kita murmurs, knowing she has gone a little pink. She isn't fond of baring her soul to somebody who doesn't particularly care about her as a person; she is well aware that Murasaki-sama sees her more as a favoured amusement than as a potential friend.

"You are a good girl, Kita-chan," Murasaki-sama says warmly. "You miss your little ward, do you not?"

"I've been raising her since she was two, Murasaki-sama," Kita agrees, "and she has been solely my responsibility for over a year now. It was her birthday at the end of October."

"And you missed it, being here in the palace," Murasaki-sama muses. "I did wonder what had you so melancholy, Kita-chan."

"Well I have bought her a gift from the city, which will hopefully persuade her to forgive me," Kita said with forced lightness, "but I do miss her. She is a delight."

"Children truly are," Murasaki-sama agrees a little archly. "Well it really wouldn't do for me to keep you from your little girl, Kita-chan, not when she so clearly holds your heart. Perhaps I should buy her a gift too, so she will forgive me for monopolising your time?"

"Murasaki-sama?" Kita blinks, not having the slightest clue how to even _start_ responding to that.

"You're a good, kind girl, Kita-chan," Murasaki-sama says fondly, "and you may keep your prickles well-hidden, rose-girl, but I know they're there." She bends down and kisses Kita's forehead. "I trust you will at least write to me; send me some of your poetry, perhaps." She smiles. "Madara-san, after the tea you should take Kita-chan to see some the Western Pavilion; I believe she would enjoy the wall paintings." She rises to her feet and sweeps off before Madara can answer, taking her tea with her.

Kita is not _quite_ sure what happened there, but it seems they will be allowed to go home soon. Good. She feels a little bruised on the inside from that conversation, and knowing that it will definitely reach the daimyo's ears –and probably Tajima-sama's as well– really does not help.

* * *

Nobody talks about what Kita did to get the daimyo to agree they could leave –the very next day, which is even faster than Madara had hoped– or about the very expensive doll with its own miniature wardrobe that Kita is given at the audience the afternoon before their departure. Father seems balanced between being annoyed at Kita for achieving what he couldn't and being annoyed that she'd created the problem in the first place, so seems to have settled into being generally annoyed at her for the delay and vaguely pleased that she fixed her own mess in short order without his having to intervene.

It's a cold, wet and miserable time of year to travel, but they all run as fast as possible despite the slippery mud because the sooner they get home the better. Madara knows his father doesn't trust Butsuma to honour the cease-fire, not when the Senju Head _knows_ the Uchiha's most powerful warriors are being delayed in the capital, and really anything could have happened.

There haven't been any summons bearing messages though, which is a good sign. Hikaku would have a letter sent if they were _truly_ needed back at the compound, so as to give them an excuse to present to the daimyo and a reason to hurry.

As it is they're not running flat-out because the women wouldn't be able to keep up, not having Outguard training, so Father is taking the opportunity to quiz Kita on her new privacy seals. The supposedly sensor-proof ones.

"They only work on enclosed spaces," Kita explains in between sharp breaths. "Like buildings. But it doesn't matter if doors or windows are open. If you're outside the boundary, you can't sense what's inside, but if inside you can sense outside."

"Sensible," Father praises.

"I want to put them, on all the clan buildings."

Father frowns. "Explain."

Kita ducks her chin. "Right. Sensing. Not like seeing at all; more like smelling, or navigational sense; knowing where you are in relation to what's around you. Who's around you. People are like lamps; some brighter, some dimmer, slightly different flavour depending on chakra affinity. Also familiarity; easier to pick out people you know. Tobirama's a strong sensor; to him, the world probably feels like the night sky, uncountable pinpricks of light vanishing into the distance, but details discernible when attentive. Constant awareness. Large-scale movement easily perceptible."

She pauses to focus on the river they are about to leap across. "Constant lights are easy to adjust to; flickering lights though? Irregular flickers? So distracting. People stepping in and out of my seal is like that. Only half the picture visible, half the puzzle pieces, and which pieces changes every other minute." She grins. "Won't _want_ to look at our compound. Will make an effort to tune us out, except when actually on watch duty. Distractions are dangerous."

Madara instantly grasps what she's saying; he's barely even mediocre at sensing but she's right, people abruptly vanishing and reappearing _would_ be distracting and for a shinobi even a split-second's inattentiveness can be fatal.

"Be nice, not to feel watched, while sleeping," Kita adds under her breath. Everybody hears her anyway; well at least all the Outguard do. Madara certainly agrees there; the idea that Tobirama is _constantly_ watching their compound, can see where they all are at all times, is really quite uncomfortable. Wait, does that mean Tobirama _knows_ that he sleeps with Kita?!

"How much ink will the seal require?" Father asks, "And how obvious will the final design be?"

"Not much ink; draws on the existing building as a framework. Will be quite obvious, but looks decorative; kind-of sharingan-like at a distance, so can pass off as traditional building feature." She takes a breath. "Has to be painted directly _on_ the building though."

"And if every building has one, there is no way to distinguish where the important buildings are or whether the design is truly relevant to the seal at all," Father deduces easily. "Very well, you have my permission. Can it be applied to tunnels?"

"Not sure," Kita admits. "Tunnels connecting buildings, maybe? Or tunnels with internal framing? Have to experiment. Definitely works on connected buildings though. Enclosed spaces; has to be, built into the seal."

"Why enclosed spaces?" Madara asks when it's clear his father isn't going to.

"Barrier seals are hard; need anchors. Can't put one around the whole compound; not enough walls, too many people coming and going. Be a trap more than a defence. Plus covering overhead and underground is high-effort. A building's basically a box; structure's all there already. Just have to repurpose it a bit."

"So it's a box-masking seal?"

Kita giggles. "Not _quite_. Inspired by a story; Koshuchei the Deathless."

Madara's never heard that name before in his life. Not that he's surprised; Kita knows all kinds of stories he's never heard before. "What's the story?"

"Koshuchei is a wicked, greedy and very powerful sorcerer, who piles up mountains of gold and kidnaps princesses, keeping them captive in his castle surrounded by gardens full of roses," Kita begins, "but he is very afraid of dying, so he removes his own heart and hides it in a chest. The chest he places in a fish's stomach, the fish he places in an egg and the egg he places in the nest of a goose, on an island in the middle of a lake full of hungry water serpents. Then, confident that no warrior will ever find it, he returns to his castle and continues his wicked ways. For even when stabbed through the chest, he does not die."

"So each house becomes a chest to hide our hearts in," Madara deduces; it's a fun story, one that could easily be stretched to involve any hero rescuing a noblewoman from the villainous Koshuchei. Although he's at a loss at how that name would be spelled in kanji. Does it mean anything or is it just nonsense sounds?

"Yes. Also make it easier to spot infiltrators if there're fewer people to sort through."

"Because only people working outside can be sensed, so it's easier to pick out people where they shouldn't be." Madara agrees; that _will_ make things easier. Also safer; Senju breaking into the clan hall will not happen again. "What does it look like?" Because Kita's seals generally don't _look_ like seals.

Kita giggles again. "Ink painting. Goose on a nest, three snake heads circling, trailing ripples."

She's right; it's going to look a bit like a sharingan and also completely innocuous. Everybody will ignore it entirely after a bit and any strangers will just assume it's an Uchiha thing, having art on their buildings that harks back to their bloodline manifestation.

"Not sure how I'd do chakra-masking for individual people," Kita admits, "not without suppressing their ability to _use_ chakra. Going to take more time."

"Chakra suppressing seals would also be useful," Father says mildly.

"Couldn't use a tag though," Kita mumbles, clearly in a world of her own right now instead of just half there, as evidenced by the further change in speech patterns, "have to be painted on directly. Or at least transfer on. Also locked in some way; chakra-masking needs to be easily used and removed, preferably reusable." She sighs, shifting to a more formal register. "Tajima-sama, might we trade with the Hyūga for a detailed map of the chakra system? Knowing I won't accidentally kill people via chakra deprivation while experimenting would _really_ help."

"Trade for what?" Father asks leadingly.

"Incense wood? Hinagiku-san gave me several incense blends as a gift, so the Hyūga must consider kōdō an important art."

The Uchiha aren't particularly interested in the Way of Fragrance, mainly because scent tracking is very much an issue and making your allies sneeze is impolitic. The Inuzuka are generally non-hostile towards the Uchiha, but Madara suspects showing up smelling like a spice shop would probably change that. The Hyūga care more about visual tracking –their eyes let them see people at great distances– and they still wear _white_ , so they likely don't consider aroma to be an issue.

Then there are the Hatake, who are vaguely allied to the Senju –Butsuma's second wife had been Hatake– and favour summons that track by scent, so it is generally smarter to smell like something that will blend in with the forest, not stand out. Especially when taking missions in the northeast.

Scent bombs to disrupt tracking generally need to be rather more potent than incense; less pleasant essential oils and ground chillies are popular there.

* * *

Kita is so, so glad to be home. Even with all the work waiting for her –despite Ohabari-oba doing most of the Homeguard bits– and Benten being cross with her for missing her birthday, it's just wonderful to be back. The infant-sized doll from Murasaki-sama does placate Benten slightly –as does Kita's gift of a miniature tea set– and within the week everything is more or less back to normal.

Well normal in the work sense; having Madara around a lot due to the ongoing ceasefire is a very pleasant change, especially since it means she can get kisses at all hours of the day. He also helps her with the process of sealing every building in the compound, storehouses and animal pens included –all the better to annoy Tobirama with– by grinding the ink for her and carrying her writing box. He also suggests that everybody be outside a building when she seals it, so it won't be obvious who made the change or how. They also have Sannosawa-sensei with them, to further the deception that he is the Uchiha's seal master. They already know that Tobirama's sensory range covers the compound and is acute enough for him to notice unexpected movement in his sleep; he may not want to pay attention to every single chakra spike but he will track them –especially when they come from Uchiha– and he will hopefully assume that she and Madara are simply witnessing whatever is being done rather than participating in the process.

Her birthday comes and goes –Madara gives her a beautiful koto, so now she can stop borrowing Ohabari-oba's– as does Madara's birthday, followed by the New Year. A little over a week after the New Year Ohabari-oba gives birth to a daughter, whom she and Tsuyoshi name Yasakatone –a traditional Amaterasu lineage name for daughters, one Kita has seen a few times in the clan histories– and the plum trees start to blossom.

The flowers are really lovely this year, but don't disguise the rising tensions within the clan generally and the Outguard specifically. Kita writes letters to her new Akimichi and Aburame acquaintances, pens a suitably humble thank you note to Murasaki-sama for the three large lacquer boxes of high-quality washi that arrive with the plum blossoms –taking care to include a few poem cards with some of her haiku neatly written on– and leans on Izuna until he agrees to let her make a better coat for him. He _had_ said when the fighting stopped, which right now it has. She had neither the time nor the materials to work while in the capital, but now she has both and would like to make up for lost time.

The Yamata-no-Orochi patchwork is going to take her some time, but the ceasefire is due to last until April and it's not even February yet. Even if somebody does break it early, she probably has until the beginning of spring.

By Izuna's birthday the tension is so suffocating that Kita sets her embroidery aside and challenges Izuna on whether he was _really_ interested in learning to make seals with wire. He is –of course– but none of her stitched seals are offensive so mostly she teaches him the visualisation and focusing exercises, to project his intent and desire through the wire, then stands back and watches him enjoy himself forming kanji and grids and basket patterns. He modifies the exercise so as to selectively ignite the chakra over the wire –really clever actually– and then goes a bit mad working on redirecting the wire mid-flight without using shuriken to do so. To what effect she has no idea, but knowing his priorities it's probably intended for combat.

It certainly amuses the rest of the Outguard and gets more of them experimenting as well, which diffuses the general in-clan tension a bit. The tension of course does not dissipate entirely –the Senju are still out there and the politics within the clan are actually _worse_ from having everybody at home to argue about precedence and influence and propriety– but even a slight reduction is good.

Right now the clan coffers are uncomfortably drained from all the expenses of their Heads living in the capital for a month, giving gifts and hosting parties, but once spring arrives the clan will be able to trade and take missions again and things will improve. They're much more self-sufficient now –this year the clan slaughtered two pigs right before the New Year and there was fresh meat for everyone, some of which has been salted or cured– and people are getting used to the associated improvements. Everybody likes eating better food, wearing less-darned clothing and having just a little bit more disposable income to buy books and toys and other small luxuries with.

Hopefully the clan will realise soon that persistent warfare with the Senju gets in the way of enjoying those luxuries, but it's probably going to take a few years for that to sink in. At which point they're going to have to choose between 'giving up' the luxuries and maybe considering a proper treaty.

Well, provided the Senju cooperate. Peace can't be one-sided after all.

* * *


	8. Chapter 8

If asked about the highlight of her year in the winter she turns eighteen, Kita would probably say it was being given a yukata set with a dragon pattern by Madara at the beginning of the summer. Which is possibly a bit trite, but it's been a rough year. Ohabari-oba got pregnant again right after Yasakatone was born –Shironushi is born in October– the in-clan political situation has been a downward spiral into petty bickering and spiteful pride that has hurt the instigators just as much as the targets, Madara and Izuna have both realised that being fully trained in appropriate use of the Mangekyō only _slows_ deterioration rather than stopping it entirely and her little brother Jōnen ran off into the woods if a huff –despite _knowing_ he's not supposed to– and got mauled by a tiger. He's lucky to be alive, but the six-year-old now has crippling scars, has lost half his fingers on one hand and can barely walk.

He's never going to be able to make handsigns for chakra techniques now. It really doesn't help that it's all his own fault and he _knows_ it; Midori tells her about the regular screaming tantrums and the listless spells but privately Kita thinks this is partly Mama's fault for spoiling the boy so much. None of her sisters would _ever_ do such a thing, they were all taught better, but Mama always bends for Jōnen so he's always got away with so much more.

Well, until now he has; things might change now that both Mama and Jōnen have seen the consequences of such dangerous permissiveness. Yori told her after the surgery that without her seals –without the seal bandages carried by the Homeguard squad who were patrolling the area due to the Outguard seeing tiger scat– Jōnen would definitely have died. Tiger bites and claws are not remotely sanitary and the blood-clotting seals she came up with in the early spring kept him from bleeding out.

Tekari is only two, so hopefully Mama will be firmer with him and he won't have to suffer such a nasty wake-up call.

Of course there have been other good things. The experienced potters coaxed into living with the Uchiha clan have picked up the education of the two apprentices, there are now new fire techniques specifically for firing stoneware and porcelain, Kita's bento-box seals have also been modified to keep the kilns at a steady temperature with minimal fuel costs –first by keeping more heat contained in the kiln and second by creating what amounts to a thermostat, 'storing' surplus heat in seal-space and releasing it back as the kiln temperature is deliberately raised or lowered, allowing for porcelain to be fired effectively and for specific glazes to be created– and there is most certainly a gap in the market for shinobi-fired tea bowls. Along with all manner of other shinobi-fired items. Having clan ceramics is a source of pride; everybody in the clan is buying and commissioning items internally now rather than buying from outsiders. Not all of the glazes come out consistently just yet, but homes are being found for all of them as the occasionally random nature of the potter's art doesn't make them any less useful; they even exemplify the wabi-sabi aesthetic.

Kita is mostly exhausted though. She _can't_ do everything, but bringing in people to delegate to seems to be creating _more_ work, not less. She has sealing apprentices now –two Outguard young men– who are learning to make their own charcoal and ink and working on their calligraphy, so that she can delegate drawing seals to them. She picked these two because they understand her thought process and how her seals work, but Kita's not sure they'll ever be that creative. Uchiha frequently aren't and developing the sharingan often seems to stunt the imagination further. She suspects having perfect recall makes the idea of innovation and improvement seem absurd; after all, if you can do it perfectly already and learned in seconds, why change your method?

Really though, the _absolute worst_ thing about this year is how the Senju's tactics have completely twisted around. They're not attacking the clan border anymore –possibly due to the seals on the compound's buildings preventing Tobirama from being able to accurately gauge numbers– so they're targeting squads on missions instead. Well, squads travelling back from missions mostly, along with returning trade caravans, which is actually worse; it's a possible consequence of her actions to protect the clan from Tobirama's sensory range, or else of stirring up trouble between him and his father with that tea ceremony. Madara and Izuna are now constantly on call along with a few elite Outguard squads, roaming just beyond the borders of clan land with summoners and sensors, trying to meet incoming clansmen so as to drive the Senju off. Kita's working on directional alarm seals but it's slow going when she's not really got the time to work on the project exclusively. Maybe a reference map will help?

Of course Tobirama is on a lot of those ambush teams and Hashirama inevitably shows up whenever Madara crashes a fight, so both of Tajima-sama's sons are angry about the change in tactics. Izuna in particular is being loud about how untrustworthy the Senju are and how very clearly they all want to obliterate the Uchiha completely. Kita could point that both Senju are of _course_ following their father's orders, but she knows Izuna well enough now to be able to tell when he's just complaining to complain.

Really, though. It's been a bad year. And the Senju clearly aren't inclined to stop fighting over the winter this year _either_.

* * *

The plum blossom is out again and Madara wants to be at home with Kita, sitting on the engawa wrapped up warm and drinking tea as they enjoy the beauty of the flowers against the winter sky. But instead he's holding Hashirama at bay with his Susano-o as the rest of his squad bag the bodies of the clansmen caught in a Senju ambush on their way back from a trading trip to the coast, sling any dropped umbrella bags containing supplies over their own backs, lift the injured over shoulders and under arms and run as fast as they can to get away from the rapidly-escalating fight.

Izuna is away west, meeting a trading caravan out of Wind, and the Outguard is so stretched that the Homeguard have been joining in the patrols around the borders. Madara's sure that the clan's already sending reinforcements and that one of the newly-formed medical teams will be headed this way at a run –Kita's tiered alarm seals tied to the map on the wall of the Outguard headquarters is a godsend and has been from the first day she set them all up, as is the built-in chime system that notifies other Outguard in the field so they know if Tobirama or Hashirama have seen sighted somewhere– but that's only good news for the injured and fleeing; he will have to rescue himself.

Madara is so, _so_ angry at the Senju for targeting _civilian clan members_. The Uchiha don't do that! They don't lurk around the borders of Senju territory looking for merchants to pick off! This has _all_ the hallmarks of a Tobirama plan, because Butsuma isn't creative enough for it!

Tobirama isn't here, but Hashirama _is_ and the idiot has always been able to take everything Madara throws at him, so he's not going to bother holding back. Not at _all_.

* * *

Kita is feeling worn to the bone by the never-ending skirmishing. The Senju's new strategy is interfering with their supply lines and those who have died as a result are mainly those who were never trained to defend the clan. They were trained to protect themselves yes, but not for the battlefield. Their duty was to _feed_ the clan, to _provision_ the clan. And now they can't anymore.

The only saving grace of this change is that _all_ the Uchiha carry umbrella bags now, so none of the money and goods they have traded for has been lost or damaged. Many have died for it, but the clan _is_ still fed and well-provisioned.

It is in no way an equivalent or acceptable exchange.

 _Too_ many have died. There have been thirty funerals just since New Year. The clan's trade branch has disbanded entirely, most of its surviving members joining the Outguard. The Outguard will now have to stand armed teams for trade missions, mixing veteran warriors with clever negotiators so as to not be caught out by Senju and still feed and supply the clan.

Those who do not want to fight or are too young or injured to do so are trying to find a place within the clan for themselves. It's not easy; they have gone from being providers to being burdens, their affluence fading away to nothing in less than a year as their numbers are halved, and most of them don't have the prestige of belonging to an established lineage; it's why they went into trade in the first place. Madara has lost most of his mother's extended family and it weighs on him terribly, not that Izuna is any better off.

Honestly, it's not really skirmishing anymore. The Uchiha have lost too many, mostly those they never thought would be lost like this, and every fight escalates rather than anybody attempting to retreat. Well, unless there are injured to defend; Yori's medical teams have somehow cribbed off Hashirama's self-healing abilities to develop a yin chakra technique that enables a degree of rapid tissue regeneration. It's still not much good for gut wounds or organ damage –they're too complicated and nobody in the clan knows enough about the human body to heal things the right way, even with a regular stream of patients and fatally injured Outguard members giving permission for the healers to experiment on the off-chance of having a break-through – but blood loss and muscle damage are both easy fixes now and broken bones can be healed much more quickly. It's chakra-intensive and people do sometimes need to go back to the healers for treatment of unexpected after-effects, but it _works_. Fewer people are dying and there are people on the lookout for good anatomy books so the medics can improve further without risking the lives of their patients to do so.

Yori has punched several people for recklessness though; just because they're better at fixing things now is _not_ an excuse for suicidal charges!

* * *

It's July and Mama is dead.

Dead.

Dead shortly after bringing two baby girls into the world. Kita has thrown together a seal to kick her own mammary glands into life and summarily taken charge of the infants –Papa and Grandma have enough on their plates with Tateshina, Naka, Jōnen, Tekari and Kinu– and has found herself thrown headlong into motherhood without even getting to do the fun bit of conceiving them first.

Kita thinks Mama died of something she remembers being called eclampsia, but there's nothing she can do about that. She never studied it; knows nothing about it other than that it is something that just happens sometimes. She knows enough to know that the breast milk seal will have odd effects on her mood due to how she's rushed into twenty-four hours what should take months, but she doesn't know the exact hows or whys there either. Just that it would work, that she _needed_ to do it and that the soreness and cravings are worth it.

Midori goes home to help Papa and Naka comes to support Kita in her place; Naka still hasn't earned her mastery in the clan's patchwork coats, so Kita now has a not-quite-thirteen-year-old apprentice to teach patchwork and embroidery to on top of a nearly-eight-year-old who is already being taught to use chakra and shuriken by her older brothers, three sealing apprentices –two of whom are new as one of her original ones is dead and so is Sannosawa-sensei– and twin newborns.

Newborns she still needs to name.

Kita is so, _so_ tired.

* * *

Madara tries to help Kita. He really _wants_ to help, so desperately, but he's in the field almost every day and most nights too and when he _is_ home he's usually so tired he just wants to sleep. Which there being two babies in the clan hall makes very challenging.

Kita has done something odd with seals the corner of their bedroom with the padded box the twins are sleeping in so that she is the only person who can hear them crying at night, which does help and he's grateful for, but all that means is _Kita_ is not getting enough sleep.

Kita is in fact getting so _little_ sleep that she's going a bit... strange. Madara takes it upon himself to delegate her sealing apprentices to Yamizo-sensei, Sannosawa-sensei's successor –he knows Kita's seals well enough to supervise them– and to arrange for Chidori-oba to keep an eye on Benten during the day. That still leaves Kita with two babies and a little sister she has to teach a craft to, but it seems more manageable than her previous workload. Especially with Naka-chan taking over some of the cooking.

The next time he's in the hall –most of a fortnight later– Kita informs him that yes, he _did_ help, which helps Madara feel better about things too. Ohabari-oba informs him that Kita's napping during the day now, which reminds Madara of the Outguard veterans who are so used to getting called out at any time that they doze whenever they're not either fighting or eating.

It's a punishing schedule for everybody. Madara doesn't even know if Kita's come to terms with her mother being dead yet; she certainly didn't cry at the funeral six weeks ago. He wants to be at home supporting her, _needs_ to be at home supporting her, but the Senju are _still_ being a nuisance so he has to fight.

He hates it. His eyes ache nearly all the time now and he _knows_ he can't see as well as he used to. He just wants Butsuma to _die_ so this whole mess will _stop._ He's seen more dead clansmen this year than in several previous years combined and he's tired of it.

* * *

The twins have names now; the rounder-faced one is Azami and the longer-limbed one is Toshi. Her thistle and arrowhead. Plant names, but at least it's not Naka. She's _never_ going to name a child that. There are too many Naka in the Uchiha already, so much so that many go by Outguard nicknames or are identified by parents or siblings or spouses, which is dreadful. Being identified by profession is not much better; her little sister is 'Coat-maker Naka.'

Today Kita caught a Senju trying to sneak into the clan compound, bound his chakra and tossed him in the pigpen. He died screaming and all she can think is 'good riddance.' She knows that's not good. She can't find the energy to care.

On the upside, the elders are _much_ more polite these days. Maybe they can see she's right at the end of her rope.

Ohabari-oba has finally taken over all the Homeguard duties again; Shironushi is weaned now and the older woman has far more time than Kita does. Tajima-sama is busy enough that he's probably not going to notice.

* * *

Madara is really, _really_ worried about Kita. He can tell _Father's_ worried too, which really _isn't_ good, but he has to be here on the battlefield. Has to fight Hashirama while Izuna fights Tobirama and Father fights Butsuma. He's giving these fights his all but he can't beat Hashirama. He's _never_ beaten Hashirama. It doesn't matter how hard or how half-heartedly he fights, Hashirama always matches him.

Does Hashirama really care about peace at all? So many Uchiha have died over the past two years, many more than Senju, and Hashirama has killed quite a number of them. Every time Madara has charged into battle he's found his so-called friend standing over the injured and dying. Clansmen suffocated by planks crushing their ribcages, impaled by branches through vital organs, casually tossed aside by spine-shattering blows; none of them die quickly and he remembers each and every last rattling breath with vivid clarity. Madara is never so cruel when he comes across a Senju patrol; his enemies die swiftly and cleanly.

Then suddenly Father throws himself up Butsuma's sword, taking the Senju's head off with his tantō, and Madara abandons Hashirama to rush to his side.

The ceasefire is awkward and hasty –Tobirama thankfully talks more sense than Hashirama– but Madara doesn't care. His father is bleeding out in his arms and he _needs_ to get home. Needs to get _everybody_ home.

Madara finally gets his father as far as the medical team, but there's nothing they can do for him except block pain, so he and Izuna spend their father's last minutes kneeling next to him feeding him chakra, so he can participate in a shared genjutsu that lets him say so much more than he ever could have with just words and impart a vast quantity of information about the clan and the Outguard, some of which is very clearly older than he is. Information their grandfather must have given him, or that their great-grandfather gave their grandfather.

So many things Madara will need to go over later, but also closure. His father has removed Butsuma, so Madara will never have to send anyone to fight against him, and what he makes of the clan –and the never-ending war with the Senju– is now in his own hands.

His and Hashirama's hands.

His father cautions him to make Kita his priority; there are so many ways an Uchiha can break and his betrothed is sliding dangerously close to that line. It is why Izuna is included in the genjutsu; he will have to take on Outguard duties while Madara ensures that the Uchiha will still have a seal master, a coat-maker and a Homeguard Head in the spring.

Madara is personally more concerned about not having a betrothed. Kita is precious for _herself_ , not just for what she brings to the clan. She is a person in her own right.

A person he loves as much as he loves Izuna.

His father dies. Madara leaves the body with his brother and the medics to be prepared for the funeral and walks home. He's walking up the path to the clan hall when he realises he's still covered in his father's blood and then Kita is jumping off the engawa and crossing the garden in bare feet to meet him.

"Madara?"

"Kita." What does he say? "Otōsama's dead." She looks completely at a loss. What else does he say? "Senju Butsuma is dead too; we have a ceasefire."

Kita bursts into tears and throws herself at him. Covered in tacky blood, his arms full of his wailing betrothed –is this the first time she's cried since her mother died? He's been away far too long– Madara doesn't know what to do. So he sits down on the garden bench and holds her tight, ignoring the rusty scarlet of his father's lifeblood smeared everywhere. There really isn't anything else _to_ do.

Her emotions are spilling from her like pus from an infected wound, but surely this is better than the emptiness of the past few months. Surely this is healthier. She's finally grieving, finally recognising what she has lost.

Madara realises abruptly as her tears mingle with his father's blood that his father is _dead_. Dead, and Madara is now Outguard Head. Now responsible for the supply and protection of the clan, just as Kita is responsible for the industry and welfare of the clan.

He rests his face against the top of his beloved's head and lets his tears join hers.

* * *

Everything hurts.

Everything.

It's too much.

Mama–

Her _heart_ –

She just _murdered_ that Senju in the nastiest way she could think of and she can still _see_ his _face_ when he realised what she was going to do–

 _Mama_ –

Her eyes are so sore and she can't stop _crying_ –

* * *

Tajima's funeral goes. The ceasefire stretches. Kita starts picking up the pieces of her life. She weaves the silk she has spun. She invites friends over so they can all do their mending jobs and writing together, rather than separately. She teaches Naka a new embroidery stitch and hugs her little sister tightly. She hugs Benten and praises her improving dexterity and chakra skills. She writes to her non-clan friends, now that sending personal letters directly won't risk the messenger's life or be so delayed through intermediaries that they take three months to arrive.

She dotes on her two adopted infant daughters and teaches Madara how to handle babies. He's at home every day now and determined to help her any way he can; she suspects having things to do is helping him deal with his own grief, so she teaches him to change nappies and the kinds of things that soothe crying babies who aren't hungry or uncomfortable.

It hurts in a good way, seeing him bounce gently on his toes and croon a song for one of the twins as he projects care at them. To have help raising them and see him light up when they greet him with a smile.

"Madara?" She says one snowy February afternoon as they're bundled up on the engawa with the babies, watching Izuna and Hikaku be utterly crushed in a snowball fight by Hijiri, Hidaka, Benten, Midori and Naka all working together.

"Yes, Kita?"

"I love you."

The expression on his face says she's just given him the best gift of his entire life.

* * *

It is spring and they're not at war. It feels a little unreal; this hasn't happened since Madara was seventeen, five long years ago. The clan is a shadow of what it was then, but he is determined to help them get there again. Well, determined to try; the clan doesn't _have_ a trading branch anymore, so that's one more responsibility for the Outguard to take up.

Madara delegates _that_ section of duties to his cousin Obihiro, who along with his wife and toddler son are some of the few of his mother's relatives still living. In the past two years of war over _one hundred_ Uchiha have died, most of them not even in the Outguard.

It's why the Homeguard now trains _everybody_ , regardless of inclination or profession. Woman and children, elderly or crippled, _everybody_ has to know how to fight to Homeguard standards rather than just self-defence standards.

It hurts Madara's heart to see little Benten determinedly wielding her miniature naginata. She only turned eight last autumn, but she's been learning to fight for eighteen months now. He wanted better for his family –had dreamed of peace and a time when children didn't have to learn to fight– but he struggles to see it these days. He's not sure where his hope went. Somewhere far, far away from all his dead cousins who were never trained for the battlefield but died in his arms there anyway.

As spring gradually fades into summer and missions continue to be startlingly uninterrupted by Senju, the problems at home begin. Madara recognises that as Outguard Head they're not technically _his_ problems, but they reach him in other ways; through angry warriors and irritable elders and arguments over where they're going to sell what.

The entrenched fatigue from the last two years is finally fading and absolutely _everybody_ in the clan has lost at least one member of their immediate family, be it a parent or a sibling or a child. And they _all_ want vengeance on the Senju.

Madara does his best, but everybody just plain _refuses_ to recognise that if they attack the Senju now, it will be like last year all over again. Just worse, because this time _they_ will have started it and the Senju will feel justified.

Madara can't explain how Hashirama outclasses him or how Tobirama will now have free rein to change the Senju's battlefield deployments as he pleases. He tries, but nobody _gets_ it. They're all too full of fury and guilt and they want to blame the Senju, because that's so much less painful than blaming themselves.

Madara has no such illusions. He knows he is just as much to blame for this endless war dragging on as any Senju. He can't beat Hashirama and unless he can, he's stuck at the idiot's mercy. It's far from ideal and he's doing everything he can, but he's not a god.

He informs everybody very firmly –and occasionally at the top of his voice– that the clan _cannot afford_ a war right now. They need more steel, they need more trained warriors, they need more armour and more food. The clan needs to grow more, to earn more, to put everybody they have left to work in crafts so as to support the Outguard, because war is _expensive_ and when they're constantly fighting the Senju they can't take as many missions or do as much trade.

The clan grudgingly subsides, but Madara knows already that this is going to come up again next spring. He needs to make the most of this year's grace.

Which means he has to make renew diplomatic contact with all the clans his father has been too busy to do more than write to since they were in the capital, two years and an age ago. Kita's apprentices are all capable of writing her fireproofing and fire-quenching seals now; maybe he can market those to their allies?

* * *

Babies grow fast; Toshi and Azami now crawl everywhere at high speed –she has tweaked the leash seal she first used on Naka so they can't fall off the edge of the engawa– and like to babble along when sung to. They're also showing dramatically different temperaments: Toshi will sit and listen avidly when Kita is playing koto, even for half an hour straight, but Azami bounces and squeals and flails to the music for a bit before losing interest and trying to get Kita's attention.

Izuna enjoys being 'the fun uncle' and playing with Azami, who revels in the attention, while Toshi is happy to sit in Madara's lap and snuggle.

Both girls are already calling her 'kaka' and Madara 'toto,' which makes him flail, and Izuna teases that they _really_ need to get married before people start talking.

Kita's not going to be twenty until the year's end and her coming-of-age will be the following January; she's hoping they can marry as soon after that as possible. What with the war and the babies she and Madara haven't really had either the time or the inclination to become more intimate with each-other, but it is now something she knows she wants. The girls are sleeping through the night too, so they _do_ have the time and the space…

She knows he wants it too; it's in how he looks at her. She loves him for being so patient with her.

Now it's really settling in that the Senju aren't going to ambush them at any moment, people are starting to bring their coats around to Kita for repairs. Well, bringing their coats around to Naka; most of the clan is a bit leery of walking up to the clan hall to ask the Outguard Head's wife-in-all-but-name to fix their stained, smelly coats. Kita gets around this by paying for a workshop to be built just beyond the hall's garden –nominally for her sealing experiments so the children can't get into them by accident– and brings in both Naka and Midori to do the bulk of the face-to-face negotiating work. They are right that she doesn't really have time for maintaining more than the patchwork coats that the main families of the clan's lineages wear, but _everybody_ in the clan still deserves to have their coat in the best possible condition and her other two adult cousins who make regular printed coats shouldn't be made to suffer under the abruptly overwhelming workload.

Midori is very good at sewing the coat seals now despite not enjoying it much and Naka has lots of practice at unpicking, laundering, mending, re-dyeing and restitching; it settles both of them to have something to do that they both know is indispensable, and to do it somewhere away from the still-painful memories of Mama. Kita sits with them every day, occasionally letting Naka take over replacing a pattern section or redoing the decorative embroidery of a section of patchwork lining under her eye, but mostly she does that part herself.

People also bring in the coats of the dead to be resized for younger siblings or children; most of her clansmen want to cling to the memories of the lost rather than wear something new, so there is a lot of soaking, patching and relining and careful folding down to size as well.

Madara entrusts her with his father's coat to soak –she has seals that let her get all the blood out of fabric now, Yori _loves_ them– and repair; she removes the coat lining from the canvas core entirely, replacing the torn patchwork sections front and back and stitching it onto a new core heavy with seals. She never got the opportunity to put more than the bare minimum of seals in Tajima-sama's coat, but she knows Madara intends to keep this as a spare and she wants him to be well-protected.

A new core means she can let the whole coat out slightly; Madara is a little wider through the shoulders than his father was and more solidly built. It also lets her feel that it's a new coat with a salvaged patchwork lining, rather than Madara wearing the coat his father died in. That's the wording she uses with the rest of the clan too; 'I salvaged the lining and put it in a new coat' is much more comforting and positive than 'I repaired the coat so somebody else can wear it.'

Of course, not everybody has old coats to reuse; there are a lot of angry, hurting teenagers with newly-awakened sharingan wanting to join the Outguard this year and most of them need coats. Madara refuses to lower the entry age –in fact he raises it to sixteen– but all the fourteen- and fifteen-year-olds still get Outguard training and are attached to the Homeguard for local patrols, running messages to nearby villages and towns and doing trade pickups with civilian merchants. A few of the smarter teenagers sweet-talk Yori into teaching them basic pharmacy and healing; the healing teams might not be on the front lines in a fight, but the clan needs every one of them regardless of age and they are invariably stationed not far from the battlefield. The fighting does reach them occasionally, which is why Yori's medical apprentices are also trained as long-range weapons specialists and trap masters.

There'd be more genjutsu specialists, but no Senju will ever look an Uchiha in the eye on the battlefield. They're trained to avoid it. How they manage that is beyond her, but they still do it.

All those teenagers need armour too, which the clan is at least flush enough in funds and time to provide rather than leave them to acquire their own. Or not, as the case may be. Basic adjustable leather armour with a few metal plates, so they won't have to buy new sets as they grow, but it's better than nothing. A lot better.

As summer heats up Madara sends a small team north to buy iron sand in bulk again; their stores are running low and armouring so many means they will need more steel to keep everybody supplied. He also increases the quarterly local order slightly; not by much, but enough that they don't need to stop making knives in order to keep everybody in shuriken.

Papa visits; apparently Jōnen is really determined to be a wire-smith now and is working very hard despite his physical difficulties. Tekari is only recently four and too young to linger in the forge for long, but he's taken a shine to one of Papa's cousins who makes shuriken –both large and regular sized– and Papa is considering an apprenticeship there. Seeing as Papa already has cousin Yae helping him as a fellow master and he's not the clan's only wire-smith, Kita thinks that's a smart idea. Aunt Nikko isn't married and the niece she's trained to eventually succeed her recently got pregnant, so Tekari will be able to learn and master shuriken-making while Naeba is focused on raising her own children.

Kinu is still a toddler, so what craft she will pick is very much up in the air. Tateshina is sixteen and Grandma says she's almost ready for her own mastery project, which is very exciting since the clan will have another true master weaver and that will let them do more with their silk. Some members of the widows' cooperative have recently specialised in dyeing and others are experimenting with shibori, so the Uchiha may soon be able to produce their own figured kasuri kimono. It's an exciting thought.

She'd like this peace to last, but the grumblings and gossip within the clan make it clear that no matter how much Madara wants peace, the wider Uchiha aren't going to cooperate. They want vengeance for the loss of all those they were never prepared to lose –nobody goes into the Outguard assuming they'll live to retire, except possibly with a crippling injury, and everybody knows it– and sooner or later somebody is going to make a move, regardless of Madara's orders to let the Senju be the ones to re-open hostilities.

It hurts, but Kita suspects it will take the instigation of a fresh round of bitter losses to truly ram home the utter wastefulness of warfare. She is not looking forward to it.

* * *

July is hard for Kita, much as October is probably going to be hard for him; Madara knows already that he's going to struggle. Obon helps a bit –she's less melancholy afterwards– and then the weather begins to be a bit less suffocatingly hot, which makes it easier to sleep at night.

Well, makes it easier for the children to sleep at night; Madara is not getting as much sleep as he might and enjoying every second of it, because as August fades Kita decides that she wants to do is be physically intimate with him. Wants him to look _at_ her with his sharingan while being physically intimate with her even, which makes it _intensely_ difficult for him to even string a coherent thought together, never mind participate.

Well, the first few times anyway. He's gradually building up a tolerance there, although he is well aware that Kita _really_ enjoys the fact that she can reduce him to red-faced incoherence by gracefully untying her sash and placing his hands on her skin.

Madara _knows_ he's body shy. He is utterly flustered –and secretly delighted– that Kita isn't at all. She's happy for him to look at her body, for him to touch her body while looking at it and to touch him in return. She's also not at all shy about letting him know how much she likes _his_ body, which is flustering in a completely different way. She's taken to writing slyly suggestive haiku and leaving them on his desk for him to find, seeded in his paperwork; Izuna thinks it's hilarious how red he goes and refuses to let him burn them. His dreadful little brother even commissions a lacquer box to keep them all in.

Being desired like this is utterly disorientating; if it was just about Kita being interested in him physically that would be different –he's had all kinds of people swooning over his looks on missions so he's got used to ignoring them– but her attraction isn't inherently physical; she likes his body because it's _his_ body, rather than the other way around. She is attracted to him as a person, to everything that makes him unique and different to everybody else, which his body is a single facet of.

He knows this because she's whispered it as he runs his hands across her bare skin and learns how she likes to be touched, and he knows it's the truth because she can't hide anything from his sharingan and she knows that too. That open truthfulness feeds the fire under his skin just as much as the way her voice hitches saying his name when he finds that sweet spot in the damp flesh between her thighs.

She is completely beautiful and he wants her so desperately he can barely breathe past that terrifying hunger. It's so vast it paralyses him, forcing him to creep forwards at a snail's pace, learning to be comfortable with this new aspect of their relationship and the changes it brings with it one tiny step at a time.

Kita's more than happy to keep the pace slow and he loves her all the more for it; if she pushed him he might explode and he's afraid of hurting her. He knows it would be all too easy to hurt her and he refuses to do that; she's too precious to risk.

October _is_ hard. He is glad for Kita at his side, supporting both him and Izuna as much as she can. October also brings up some things he'd not realised before but that tell him a lot about his father's leadership style. Things that really aren't all that good.

"Kita, are you going to resume your duties as Homeguard Head again now the girls are older?"

Kita glances up from her embroidery frame; it's a patchwork coat for Taka's oldest nephew Oshiki, who has just joined the Outguard and is her heir now she's made it clear she's never going to marry. His father Omoto has been dead well over a year now, one of the early casualties of the Senju's tactic of picking off merchants. "Madara, I'm not the Homeguard Head."

Madara stills, sensing Izuna's chakra twitch as he twists around to face them both. "Otōsama said you were."

Kita looks him firmly in the eye. "Madara, Uchiha clan tradition states that the head of the Homeguard is a senior member of the Amaterasu lineage, which I most certainly am _not_. I am the clan's seal master, which is a full time position all by itself and requires me to not favour any branch of the clan over any of the others. Never mind that being your wife is _also_ a full-time job; I do not have the _time_ to be Homeguard Head as well. Ohabari-oba is Homeguard Head; if Izuna is interested in the position he could train as her successor, but if not I expect Minakata will take on the role."

"So why did Otōsama say you were?"

His betrothed shifts slightly on the tatami and Madara abruptly _knows_ he won't like the answer. "Upon marrying Hitomi-sama, Tajima-sama insisted that your great-uncle Mitama-san abdicate in her favour. He did so, but Hitomi-sama was not inclined to stand in the way of what your father wanted, even when that did not benefit the clan as a whole. So Mitama-san trained Niniji-sama and Ohabari-oba in secret, so that between them they could provide what Hitomi-sama was neglecting. When Hitomi-sama died, Tajima-sama decided there was no need to appoint a replacement Homeguard Head. When Mitama-san protested, your father accused him of treason and executed him, so Niniji-sama secretly took on those duties in his place. Tajima-sama then found out what Niniji-sama was doing."

Madara knows what his father had done to their uncle, his own brother. He'd been _there_ when Father accused Niniji-oji of treason and executed him. It had been over _this_? Father had executed great-uncle Mitama too, who'd been the one to take him along to watch great-uncle Moreya fly his hawks? It hadn't been an accident like Ohabari-oba had told him?

"I suspect Tajima-sama knew that Ohabari-oba was still doing some of it, but she was far less of a threat to his authority than Niniji-sama," Kita continues quietly, "hence his ordering her to train me as befits a Homeguard Head when he betrothed me to you. However as I made it clear to oba-san at the time that I did not _want_ to be Homeguard Head, she agreed to teach me _about_ the Homeguard and 'assist' me in the associated duties, with the implication that I would not at any point usurp her authority."

"So Oba-san is the Homeguard Head and you were only ever covering for her," Izuna says flatly.

"Well, I _was_ doing most of the work when Yasakatone and Shironushi were born so close together, as she didn't have the time, but you both know how rushed off my feet I was then."

Well yes; she had more to do than she could keep up with. Which is entirely the point of Kita _not_ wanting to be Homeguard Head.

"I think Izuna-san could be an excellent Homeguard Head if he chose to be," Kita continues judiciously, snipping off a thread, "as he has a very nuanced understanding of politics and can finesse people very well. However I do not know that he _wants_ to be, or whether you would trust him to share leadership of the clan with you, Madara."

Implying that his father certainly hadn't trusted _his_ siblings to do so. That's terribly sad, really. "I trust Izuna," Madara says firmly. "But it's his choice."

Izuna frowns. "I'll consider it, Niisan. It could be interesting; Hikaku's basically your second in Outguard matters anyway so I don't really fit anywhere right now." He turns towards Kita. "Would oba-san mind my sitting in for a bit, just to see how things work, before making a decision?"

"I think you should let me first assure her that you both know and it's fine, then Madara visit her to _also_ assure her that it's fine and suggest Izuna learn more about the role with an eye to possibly succeeding her," Kita says firmly. "Then make it public that this is what you're doing; make it sound like you're giving Ohabari-oba the Headship because I've got too much else to do, rather than that we've been going behind your back and you're just making it official."

Madara nods. That's suitably politic and lets him avoid going into painful family history, while also clarifying who is responsible for what so nothing falls through the cracks.

He's still rather sickened by the implications though. His father killed his own little brother for trying to care for the clan? Madara could never, _ever_ do that. Izuna would _never_ try to usurp his authority as Outguard Head and though he does argue with Madara sometimes, it's because he too wants the best for the clan and he thinks things would be better done differently. But that's not a threat to his authority, that's Izuna trying to _help_! Father killed their uncle for trying to help?!

He's grateful for Toshi-chan climbing into his lap; it gives him an excuse to hug her and right now he needs that hug.

* * *

Kita is incredibly grateful to no longer have the whole 'Homeguard Head' business hanging over her. She's not entirely sure Izuna will actually take on the role –he does enjoy fighting on the front lines and has strong opinions about opposing the Senju whenever possible– but even just having him sit in on some of what Ohabari-oba is doing seems to be helping the spats and internal strife simmer down a little.

With the benefit of hindsight, she can see that a good part of the problem was that many of the elders and lineage heads felt insulted that Tajima-sama had given a little girl from a minor branch of a less influential lineage authority over all of them, which had fed their animosity when she changed things in ways that did not immediately and personally benefit them. Now that Ohabari-oba is officially in charge and Izuna is understudying, everybody feels more seen and acknowledged because they are both from the main Amaterasu lineage and Izuna is Madara's brother.

Hopefully between them they can encourage a little more cohesiveness within the clan, because things there really are at an _incredibly_ low ebb right now.

"Is there always this much petty bickering?" Izuna demands about a week after Madara's announcement, dropping down on the engawa facing her as she spins her peace silk.

"Yes," Kita assures him. "In fact there's probably less than usual; everybody seems very pleased having the Homeguard back under the official aegis of the Amaterasu lineage."

"And Otōsama _allowed_ it?!"

"He encouraged it," Kita corrects mildly. "With everybody sniping at one-another and bickering amongst themselves, they were never cohesive enough to present their own ideas to oppose his decisions or thwart him when he made unilateral decisions on Homeguard matters."

"But, but that's _not_ good for the clan!"

Kita eyes him. "You should have noticed by now that your father cared mainly about his own vision of the clan, which was fully under his authority, than about most of the actual _people_ who make up the clan."

Izuna _glares_ at her. "I'm going to spar with Madara," he announces before stomping off. Oh, so maybe he _hadn't_ noticed before now; she should apologise. Of course, being Tajima-sama's son and generally on the privileged end of his father's decision-making process, it follows that he's not seen as much of the flipside.

Well, whether or not Izuna _does_ eventually take up command of the Homeguard, it will be good for him to have his horizons widened. As she goes back to her spinning, Kita wonders idly whether being exposed to family members in this context will have an effect on his personal philosophy on the cyclical nature of reality. After all, if reality truly _is_ cyclical, then all these arguments are also inevitable and will continue coming around again, just like the war with the Senju appears to.

Does Izuna even realise that attempting to resolve the arguments and promote harmony within the clan goes against his stated personal beliefs?

Probably not.

* * *

Kita's birthday brings with it a sweet sense of anticipation; she's twenty now, old enough to marry and she really _wants_ to marry Madara. Of course there's her coming-of-age in January to do first –where she will get to wear the Toyotama lineage's colourful furisode for the first and probably last time– but with the ceasefire still ongoing, wedding preparations are already afoot. The date has been tentatively set for Risshun, the first day of spring on February the fourth, and the entire clan seems to be looking forward to it. Tateshina is already weaving her wedding kimono.

Weddings for Clan Heads are once-a-generation occurrences and an opportunity for everybody to eat excellent food at the clan's expense. Kita would be more surprised if people _weren't_ looking forward to it.

Her biggest birthday present is a full set of utensils for tea ceremony, a mix of new items commissioned by Madara, family heirlooms bequeathed to her by Grandma –Kita hadn't even known Grandma _had_ a chaki, never mind an antique fukusa– and a tea bowl presented by the new Uchiha potters with a beautiful blue-black oil-spot pattern in the glaze. Both the civilian specialists now have Uchiha wives, so are part of the clan in truth. It's a rush to have her own set rather than having to use the Outguard Head's tea utensils, and Madara has ensured all the lacquered boxes have water dragons on as well as the traditional uchiwa and flames, to reference her lineage. Kita _loves_ them.

She also loves her little sisters for making a lavish breakfast then getting out all the pattern scrolls for the Toyotama lineage and trying to subtly get her to pick one. Naka is _much_ better at patchwork now and Midori's embroidery is also solid, if slow, so between them they will be able to make a good coat with minimum input on her part. Kita pretends she doesn't know what they're doing and shows them her favourite Toyotama design, one she contributed to the collection herself. It's not actually the most complicated one, but it is fairly challenging; if they manage it she will take the time to consider their individual skills, ensure Naka is suitably well-rounded and determine whether they have learned all she can teach.

If so, at fourteen Naka is old enough to take independent commissions. Midori is barely twelve, but her embroidery is good enough now that she could make a living off decorating obi and embellishing kimono fabric produced by the Tateshina, even without her sealing skills, which are something that will bring in money to the clan the way her preferred hobbies do not.

Kita is so very proud of _all_ her little sisters. Little Kinu-chan proudly toddled over to the clan hall with a basket of fresh quail's eggs for omelettes and to soft-boil for bento as her first errand and Kita almost cried in joy. She's not seen much of the three-year-old, what with everything going on over the past year or so, and Kinu is _completely_ adorable, although Kita's not quite sure where those curls have come from. Kita has Grandma's pin-straight hair and most of her other sisters' locks are in varying degrees of Uchiha unruly, Toshi and Azami included, but real curls? That's actually quite unusual.

Pretty though.

Madara's birthday comes and goes, as does the New Year, and then suddenly Kita is being mobbed by Grandma leading a conglomerate of Toyotama kinswomen –she hadn't realised _all_ these people were close relatives– who chivvy her through the clan bathhouse –one of the clan bathhouses, the Uchiha's increased affluence has led to a second shared one being built and various private ones– do her hair in a complex and elaborate style, paint her face and dress her in a stunningly gorgeous pale blue furisode embroidered with cranes, plum blossom, foamy waves and water dragons along with pines, bamboo and all the other symbolic allusions to long life and good fortune. The obi picks up the wave pattern, larger and more geometric with curling pairs of koi in the centre of each wave, picking up all the colours of the furisode's embroidery in the weave, and Kita feels very, very beautiful even before the fur collar is draped around her shoulders.

She has scented pouches tucked into the fold of her obi, her nails have been carefully manicured and she barely recognises the woman in the mirror as Grandma dabs her eyes with a handkerchief and Granny Fuji beams toothlessly at her, sharingan shining. Then Kita is bustled off to the clan's shrine to be blessed and join everybody else who is coming of age this year –a selection of men and women in their late teens and a handful of other twenty-year-olds– so the Homeguard and Outguard Heads can congratulate them on reaching adulthood and formally add their names to the clan register.

Children's names are only in the shrine register, so that if they die young they can become family spirits. An adult clan member with their name in the register can marry without needing their parents' consent, start a business, move into vacant housing and has the right to personally address the Elders and Heads over difficulties which require some kind of judgement or resolution.

Madara stares at her speechlessly for several seconds when she reaches the front of the line, making Ohabari-oba roll her eyes fondly and elbow him before picking up the brush to add Kita's name to the records. Her betrothed instantly goes scarlet, manages to stutter out the required words of welcome and acknowledgement as all the adults in the audience chuckle knowingly at how smitten he is. He then goes almost purple when Kita's first act as an official adult is to go up on tiptoe to kiss him lightly on the lips right there in front of the entire clan.

There's a roar of applause and wolf-whistling from the crowd despite her spontaneous violation of proper protocol; everybody in the Uchiha clan appreciates a good love story.

Kita then heads off to stand with Papa and her smartly-dressed siblings so Madara can recover and continue his duties without distraction until everybody has been personally recognised, at which point there is a buffet lunch, paid for jointly by the close relatives of the participants, that the entire clan is free to partake from.

Izuna locates her instantly, smoothly extricates her from the clutches of her family and tows her over to Madara. "Here, you keep an eye on him while I fetch food."

"I do not need _managing_ , Izuna!" Madara protests, but it's half-hearted because he's staring at her and his eyes have gone all soft. Kita realises that they're getting married in less than a month and feels her face go pink under the makeup; eight years of friendship that have eased slowly into courtship and it's almost over. Soon they'll be married with everything that entails and embarking on a new stage of life together.

He can read her easily; the softness gains a spark of heat as he places her hand on his arm and bends down so their faces are closer together. "You look magnificent," he says roughly, eyes briefly lighting up scarlet as he takes in every detail of her outfit and appearance. This close, Kita can see a smear of her red lip paint across his mouth.

"Thank you," she says shyly, free hand fiddling with her fan.

"Just so you know, nobody is _ever_ going to let you forget that you did that," he adds teasingly, eyes fading back to black.

"Like they're never going to let _you_ forget that you were struck speechless?" Kita teases back, leaning her head against his shoulder.

Madara grumbles under his breath, chakra as hot as the air from a kiln coiling lightly around her waist and carrying a faintly smug edge. "They're just jealous you're marrying _me_."

Kita can't help a giggle escaping. The thing is, quite a few people probably _are_ , if only because she's the clan's primary seal specialist _and_ the clan's patchwork coat specialist on top of that. The Uchiha coats are a prestige item, even if everybody has one, and while Kita is actually one of four or five individuals in the Toyotama lineage making regular print coats, she's the _only_ person currently permitted to make and maintain the silk patchwork coats. Naka will be there soon, but she isn't yet.

There's also the fact that tossing that Senju infiltrator into the pigpen and dispassionately watching him be ripped apart won her a scattering of approving older admirers in both the Homeguard and Outguard, but Kita tries not to think about that; not her finest moment. Rather the opposite.

"Has Izuna decided yet whether or not he's moving out when we marry?" Kita asks instead.

"He says he's staying until we need his room to stash additional children in," Madara replies dryly. After Tajima-sama died, Madara cleared out his father's bedroom so Midori, Naka and Benten could sleep there rather than in the tiny box room; Azami and Toshi are in the box room now. Well, they are put to bed in the box room; they frequently wake up in the middle of the night and toddle through the fusuma to get into bed with her and Madara before going back to sleep.

Madara's long since moved all his things into her room; Izuna has a bedroom entirely to himself these days.

"So staying then." Tajima-sama's old room is large enough to fit another two full-sized futons and Naka probably isn't going to stay in the clan hall after mastering her craft; all Mama's equipment and materials are back in the family house, along with the silkworms and the mulberry trees. As it is, Naka goes home regularly to help Tateshina look after the silkworms and most of the printing is done in the workshop next to the house rather than in Kita's seal workshop. It's less messy that way, seeing as Papa's house is on the edge of craft and farming district facing the river rather than at the heart of the residential sector.

Kita suspects Naka will inherit that house rather than moving in with her husband; it's not like the mulberry trees can be moved and Jōnen would probably be more comfortable in a house closer to Papa's workshop, since his scars mean he can't comfortably walk very far. Seeing as that house was Grandpa and Grandma's house that Papa moved into when he married Mama, it wouldn't be the first time things worked out that way.

Uchiha inheritance has always been more about who has the appropriate skills and is going to make proper use of the resources than who is the oldest son.

* * *

Madara gets one week of deliriously, maddeningly glorious and fulfilling marital bliss before everything careens downhill again. One _week_. He is so, _so_ angry with Uchiha Komaki for that.

"You _broke_ the ceasefire."

Komaki is trying to look defiant but mostly he looks terrified. Madara knows he's not regulating his killing intent very well, but right now he does not give a single solitary shit.

"There were Senju on the road!"

"You were on a _trading mission_ ," Madara growls, the world red-edged through his sharingan. "Did they attack you?"

"Yes!" It's not true, Madara can _see_ it.

Madara feels his face do something ugly; Komaki quails. " _Liar_."

"So I attacked first! They would have attacked us anyway! I _recognised_ the one in charge, he murdered my brother!"

" _You_ broke the ceasefire," Madara snarls, "which means that all the deaths to come are on _your_ head. Every funeral, every crippling injury, _all_ of it. Uchiha will die because _you_ couldn't be bothered to _obey me_."

Those Outguard members present are all very visibly remembering how his father would have reacted to this kind of defiance; Hakodate and the other members of the Squad responsible are clearly expecting to be summarily decapitated as Komaki sinks his knees, grey and struggling to breathe.

"Executing you would be a kindness," Madara grits out, forcibly restraining his fury so Komaki's heart doesn't give out entirely, "so I'm not going to. You get to _see_ our kinsmen die, to hear our kinswomen grieving and watch the orphans beg for their parents to come home and _know_ that you brought further loss on them all, because you were too _selfish_ to recognise that _everybody_ has lost family. Everybody!"

"My brother–"

"I lost _three_ younger brothers to the Senju!" Madara bellows. "Three! And I would _still_ make peace with them if I could, while I still _have_ a brother and clansmen left to lose! Yet thanks to _you_ we will have war and death and still _more_ losses! May you _choke_ on war!" He's going to take this Squad with him _every_ time he has to face off against Hashirama, until every last one of them hates the never-ending parade of death and mutilation as much as he does or they die trying to get away from it.

He turns his back on them and stomps off while he still has the self-control not to strangle Komaki where he stands. So much for his dreams of peace; he will have to rework the entire year's mission strategy to account for Senju assaults and try to find a way to make the conflict less one-sided and defensive.

First though he's going to drag Izuna out for a spar, so as to work off some of his temper. Kita shouldn't have to put up with him when he's like this and he doesn't want to scare the girls.

* * *

Two years. She's been married two years and the war has not stopped. She had been planning on unpicking the immune-boosting seals from her clothes about a month into her marriage, but then some Outguard warrior put his own grief ahead of the wellbeing of the clan and Kita decided against it. This is no time to bring a child into the world and she already has two toddlers to care for.

Then again, she knows her seals aren't an entirely effective contraceptive and neither are the herbal tisanes she drinks daily; Yori was using all of those and she's still pregnant. She unpicked the seals from her clothes once she realised she _was_ pregnant, so as not to miscarry –it can be very dangerous and there's no need to make things worse for herself– and Hikaku is already beside himself with worry for his wife.

Hikaku is now the most experienced member of the Outguard after Madara. Tsuyoshi is dead, as is Taka –she died in Oshiki's arms, which activated _his_ Mangekyō– and so are Ikazuchi and Homusubi. In fact the _entire_ Kōjin lineage is dead now except for Homusubi's son Kagutsuchi, who is all of eight and living with a maternal aunt who has six other vaguely-related orphans to care for.

Kita's immune-boosting and infection-killing seals have led to more infants surviving their first few years of life over the past decade, but the combination of that with the ongoing war eating away at the adult members of the clan is that a good half of the Uchiha still living are younger than fourteen. _Half_. It's not doing anybody's nerves any good, especially now there aren't enough Homeguard members left to consistently guard the borders –a lot of the younger Homeguard have transferred to the Outguard to boost numbers– in case of a major incursion.

The only positive thing to be said is that the clan is not short of food or money. There is a good market for Uchiha charcoal, ink, stoneware and silk, they still have enough iron sand stored up to keep everybody armed –well for the next year or so at least– the weather has been good enough that crops have grown well and there's meat and fish for everybody to eat. The problem is that two-thirds of the clan's adults are either on the battlefield or running missions and the remaining third –a scant handful of elders and disabled and a harried, overworked cadre of women and craftspeople– are tending the fields, feeding the livestock, teaching the children and doing all the necessary work that the keeps the clan running, aided by the teenagers not yet old enough to join the Outguard and the children they are caring for. Even Papa is going on trade missions now, just so as to free up a warrior who would better serve the clan elsewhere.

Well Papa _was_ going on trade missions until he didn't come back from one. Jōnen is apprenticed to cousin Yae now and Aunt Nikko is fostering Tekari, since he's her apprentice anyway. Naka is sixteen and a coat-maker in her own right, so she has been allowed to keep the house; Midori is sticking to embroidery and seals in between helping with the farming and livestock, but her work is no less desperately needed. They both live with Grandma and five-year-old Kinu, who has surprisingly strong chakra reserves and is already helping Yae to keep up charcoal production, so may well go into wire-smithing once she's older. Tateshina is recently married and contributing significantly to the Uchiha through her weaving; her husband is Takao, one of exactly six main-line Toyotama still living, who is in the Outguard and may leave Kita's sister a widow at any time. Kita hopes it won't happen, but there are no guarantees.

Kita may also be widowed at any time; Madara's eyesight is steadily deteriorating with how much he's using his Mangekyō on the battlefield. He has to keep his sharingan constantly active just to _see_ the battlefield these days and Kita knows it's wearing on him. It's wearing on Izuna too, but her brother-in-law is trying not to mention it because he knows that Madara will see that as his fault as well.

There is nothing Kita can do except work on her seals, care for the children, make sure her husband and his brother have a warm, comforting home to come back to and good food to eat, write letters to the clan's allies on her husband's behalf and pray desperately for a miracle. She has all kinds of seals now that she _knows_ could reshape the battlefield completely, but for that to work the entire Outguard would have to be on board with the plan and she can't make them do that. Madara would have to order them do that and even so, there's no guarantee they'd _do_ it.

Well, they probably _would_ do it. After the remnants of the squad who kicked all this off committed suicide in the autumn of last year the entire Outguard is _very_ particular about doing precisely what their Head expects of them, but there's a difference between obeying in familiar situations and obeying when you're ordered to do something new and deeply strange.

Kita is rapidly getting to the point of being willing to risk it though. Maybe she can talk to her husband about it next time he's at home? She's got everything ready and her two surviving apprentices –one missing his left leg below the knee, the other lacking hands entirely and painting with the brush clenched between her teeth– are both supportive and cautiously hopeful.

She _should_ tell Madara. At this point the entire _clan_ recognises that they're losing and no matter how many have died, the vast majority of those who are left just want to survive. Avenging the dead be damned.

* * *

It's yet another day and yet another battlefield being churned into crimson mud. Madara is fighting Hashirama, Izuna is fighting Tobirama and Hikaku is facing off against a vaguely familiar Senju with a topknot and blue armour –is her name Baika? Tōka? Something floral anyway– and so far this morning the injured are mainly managing to get themselves off the field, but he can already see a body in an Uchiha coat so that's at least one funeral he'll be attending later.

Madara is so, so tired of funerals. He attends every single one of them –it's his duty as Outguard Head to honour his men and women's sacrifices– and they tear at his heart. He's Head of a clan of children and cripples, of people who know how to fight because they _know_ there is nobody to protect them and it is so very far from his childhood dream it breaks his heart.

Every day.

Then Tobirama moves impossibly quickly, right across the battlefield faster even than the sharingan can follow, Izuna collapsing in a heap behind him with blood staining his coat darker and–

"Izuna!"

No no no no no!

He _cannot_ lose Izuna! Not his little brother!

The retreat is disorganised and Madara has to guard the rear to make sure the Senju do not follow, but Hashirama seems content to let them run and those of his men most capable with Yori's yin chakra technique are carrying Izuna back to the clan compound as quickly as they can. Madara is praying that Yori can do _something_ , but he's seen so many clansmen die by inches of wounds in the area Izuna is bleeding from and he's _terrified_.

Not Izuna. Not _Izuna_! Please!


	9. Chapter 9

"Right, the good news is that the sword barely grazed your spleen so I was able to heal it completely before you bled out," Yori says briskly, looking Izuna in the eye from where she's kneeling by the side of the mat he is laid out on in his undershirt, his side neatly bandaged. "The bad news is that the blade went right through your pancreas and ruptured it, and there is precisely nothing I can do to even _attempt_ to fix that which won't kill you much faster, probably in some novel and interesting manner. We've managed to keep you from dying of shock and the medical seals mean that infection won't be an issue, but you're going to be constantly nauseous and eating will make you vomit so _don't_ , you're going to be in constant pain and it's a tossup whether it's going to be the kidney failure or the lung collapse that kills you first. If you move as little as possible and drink plenty of lightly salted water sweetened with a little honey you _might_ see next week, but don't count on it."

Madara can't move. It is visible in every line of her body that Yori is bitterly unhappy with her diagnosis, stripping off her gloves and blood-spattered smock and adding them to the pile of soiled linens with the bloody sheets that Izuna was lying on during treatment, and Madara _can't move_. All he can do is stare at his baby brother's face, at Izuna's expression twisted with pain and grief and anger and growing resignation, as the words, 'you might see next week but don't count on it,' echo in his ears.

"Madara-sama." His cousin's wife bows to him deeply before slipping out of the room, one hand cradling her pregnant belly. Her assistant follows her, carrying the bloody linens.

Madara still can't move. He can barely _breathe_.

"So, this is it then," Izuna croaks, staring blindly at the ceiling above him.

"No!" Madara _can't_ – "Otōto _please_!"

"I'm going to die," Izuna says steadily, breaths shallow and the every rise and fall of his ribcage causing pain to tighten between his eyebrows. "So brother, please, take my ey–"

" _No!_ " Madara storms out of the room before he loses control of his chakra; in the state he's in right now that could _kill_ his little brother and– no. No. This can't be it. He _can't_ lose Izuna!

Kita. Kita has seals and seals can do miraculous things; that the Uchiha can do as much as they can to heal people now is thanks to her seals as much as to Yori's yin technique. A week isn't long but _maybe_ –

* * *

Kita knows her husband and brother-in-law are back in the Uchiha compound. She knows Izuna is injured; she felt it, both in the muted agony of his chakra as he was carried to the healing hall and in the wild, terrified swirling of her husband's presence. Her two three-year-olds have bento and are running around wild in the compound somewhere with the other small children, five-year-old Kinu keeping an eye on them both, and Benten is at naginata training.

There is nobody in the clan hall except her. Nobody to see her husband stumble in, shed sandals and drop his bloody coat, armour and weapons in an untidy heap just past the genkan and stagger through the front hall, almost tripping over the edge of the tatami before collapsing to his knees in front of where she's doing the Outguard accounts, prostrating himself and pressing his face to the mats.

"Madara!?" Kita shoves her writing desk aside, scooting forward but not quite daring to touch him. "What's wrong?!"

"Please!" He begs her, not getting up from that terrifyingly deep bow. "Can you use seals to heal Izuna? Kita _please_ help him!"

"Madara what's wrong with him?" Is this–?

Her husband levers himself up a little, but does not break dogeza. "Yori says his pancreas is ruptured," he chokes out, "and that he has a week at most. _Please_. I can't… _can't_ –" he sobs, his entire body shaking, forehead knocking back down on the tatami.

Kita feels her own chakra spike, barely noticing the world coming into unnatural focus around her as her mind whirls. She discards the first three things that come to mind –there's nothing she can do in so little time– if he's dying they have nothing left to lose –what will the clan give for peace– brings her chakra back under control, takes a careful breath and asks a question:

"Madara, have you or any others in the Outguard ever seen a Senju take an injury like Izuna's and return to the battlefield afterwards?"

Madara rises out of that terrifying bow, sharingan lighting up as he focuses. "I– maybe?" He looks her in the eye, desperation in every line of his body. "I'll find out." He stumbles to his feet, turns and strides out of the side of the house, barely taking the time to slip back into his sandals, tears still streaking his cheeks as he dashes across the garden in a straight line towards the Outguard headquarters, bounding over the koi pond in his haste.

Kita takes a second to pray for the unfortunates she has just inflicted her panicking husband upon, then gets to her feet. His armour and weapons need hanging up on their rack and his coat needs cleaning; she will grab a passing clansman to take the coat to Midori, deal with the armour and weapons herself and then make use of the time Madara's frantic mass interrogation will hopefully buy her to go over her seals and come up with a strategy that both he and Izuna will consent to.

Izuna is likely to be the hard sell here. He _still_ unthinkingly hates the Senju; Hikaku has at least learned better.

* * *

An hour later Madara has bullied thirteen Outguard members into the clan hall and is glaring impatiently with sharingan swirling as they take it in turns to share a genjutsu with Yori so she can analyse the injuries and reappearances they have witnessed. The searing heat and low-grade intent rippling through his chakra and coiling around him don't really do anything for the atmosphere; Kita quietly fetches her husband's armour kit and pushes it into his hands along with his chest plate. He starts slightly, but does sit down and start the process of cleaning and oiling his armour. Once he's settled Kita fetches the entire stand; that should keep him busy for a little while.

It doesn't take much focus and at the end he will have accomplished something tangible, which is more that can be said about what Kita is attempting here. Well, will be attempting shortly; the whole scheme does not hang on her alone but she will have to do her part.

Yori does not rush herself. After a first run-through she dismisses eight of the men before re-examining the memories of the other five. Madara finishes with his armour and starts sharpening his scythe, then moves on to his twin swords and various knives. Kita is bent over her desk, frantically leafing through her notes and throwing together the new seals that her plan is going to require, occasionally consulting the diagram of the chakra system that Tajima-sama let her trade with the Hyūga for. Both diagrams; the Uchiha chakra system is a little idiosyncratic due to their bloodline and Hinagiku-san kindly agreed to produce a specific Uchiha version for her in exchange for an entire kimono of figured wild silk, using the Squad delivering the request as models.

Worth it. So _very_ worth it.

Yori finally dismisses the remaining warriors and waits for them to not only put on their sandals but leave the grounds of the hall entirely before speaking. "Well, I can now state _conclusively_ that yes, the Senju have some kind of comprehensive healing programme and can regenerate organ damage in about a fortnight, as well as treat other serious injuries such as shattered bones and third degree burns." Her face is tight; no doubt she's remembering all the Uchiha who have died of comparable injuries over the past seven years. They're a markedly bigger clan than the Senju, but all that means is that they've been able to match their enemies' numbers in the field despite sustaining considerably greater casualties. Dead is dead, but the gap between where the Uchiha and the Senju set the 'as good as dead' benchmark makes a big difference; the Senju have demonstrably better healers.

Madara breathes out, trembling slightly.

"Thank you, Yori," Kita replies quietly. "Please arrange for Izuna to be moved back home, and be assured that you will be consulted before we move him again or attempt treatment."

Yori leaves. Kita turns her full attention on her husband. "Madara, I have a plan," she says gently, "but for it to work Izuna _has_ to cooperate and you need to present the casualty statistics to the elders _first_ , so that they can agree that seeking to make peace with the Senju is in fact for the good of the Uchiha in both the short- and medium-term, even if things fall through in the long term."

"Peace?" Madara glares, gesturing wildly. "Kita! Tobirama has all but _murdered_ my brother!"

"Madara, the Senju can _heal_ your brother," Kita replies patiently, "and this is the best time to determine whether Hashirama is actually serious about wanting peace. If he _is_ , then he will agree for your brother to be healed and Izuna will live. If he is _not_ ," Kita sighs, "well, we're hardly going to entrust our Clan Head's brother to our enemy without taking an equally valuable hostage in return, are we?"

"You want to neutralise Tobirama," Madara deduces instantly, which yes; it would have the benefit of depriving the Senju of his sensory skills and tactical acumen. Never mind the likely long-term logistical issues as Hashirama's carelessness starts to have more of an impact. "Hashirama will _have_ to relinquish his brother for the exchange to be equal, and we will of course bind his chakra for the safety of our clansmen and because Izuna is currently helpless, for fairness' sake if nothing else. If Izuna is restored to full health we swap them back, and with that demonstration of good faith the Elders will _have_ to agree to full formal terms, and if not–" his bitter grin is somewhat deranged.

"I believe Hashirama will agree," Kita says carefully; first-hand evidence and her memories of a former lifetime both imply that the Senju Head is a blind zealot pursuing the ideal of peace, so will likely jump at the chance. Tobirama will be far more wary, but he is loyal above all else so if his brother orders it he will comply. Even though he may well believe the Uchiha mean him dead. Yes, certain individuals _do_ , but not all of them. Not even most of them.

"How do we make it work?"

"Seals," Kita says succinctly. "I can put a temporary pain-numbing seal on Izuna, so he can move and breathe through the pain for transportation, and a more permanent seal to ensure nobody can touch his eyes along with a tracking seal so that we will know immediately if he dies. I have chakra-binding seals we can put on Tobirama, additional seals I can put on a bedroom to block his sensing and a leash seal so he can't leave clan grounds without a designated escort. The best way to get an audience is for you to march down to the border in full armour and yell at the Senju who are definitely going to be lurking there that you want a formal meeting with their Clan Head midmorning on the following day. Maybe take a letter? Whatever the formal protocol for arranging a short-term truce is." Tajima-sama never trained her with that kind of diplomacy in mind.

"I'll go now–"

"Madara, wait! We have to convince Izuna to agree first. It's his body; using him as a bargaining chip without his consent is," Kita makes a face. "He is the one who has to agree to allow the Senju to use their chakra on him, who will be unconscious and vulnerable in their care."

Madara sags back into a sitting position. "Yes. You're right." His face hardens. "If you put the pain-numbing seal on him this afternoon, so he can think clearly while we discuss it and agree, I can go tomorrow and negotiate with Hashirama the day after." He sets his shoulders, the pervasive despair that was gouging deep cracks in his façade almost entirely contained. "Whatever happens, the situation with the Senju _will_ be less desperate for trying this."

Kita nods. She put a _lot_ of effort into coming up with something that would provide benefits regardless of the outcome. Even if Hashirama says 'no,' they will still have set doubts to rest.

* * *

Izuna agrees. Kita suspects he is agreeing because he fully believes he _will_ die, and that dying at the hands of the Senju is a better death than fading away in his own bed –also this way he can die knowing Tobirama will not outlive him– but he still _agrees_ , with his full faculties available to him as granted by her pain-numbing seal, and that is the important part. Izuna's only condition is that his brother takes his eyes before they do this, which Madara agrees to. Kita manages to get them to agree to a proper swap –Izuna needs to be able to see while in Senju hands– and Yori agrees to carry out the procedure after Madara has demanded the truce tomorrow morning.

Convincing the elders is more challenging. Kita is present at the meeting backing up her husband, wearing her black Toyotama tomesode inherited from Great-Grandma and a suitably elegant hairstyle as a sign of respect, and a reminder both of her status and the importance of what is at stake. It takes _hours_ to argue them into submission, even with Ohabari-oba helping, and Kita has to really spell out all the things that her seals –on both Izuna and Tobirama– will guarantee. She's glad for the sound-blocking seals on the shōji leading to the girls' bedrooms; without it they'd probably have been woken up several times by now.

Tobirama will have to stay in the clan hall; it's the only place Madara can guarantee he'll not be murdered in his sleep by grieving Uchiha. Not in Izuna's room though; Kita will move Benten's futon in there and put Tobirama in Tajima-sama's old room. That will be a suitably neutral compromise, as it's not like Madara's father is alive to complain about a Senju getting the best-appointed bedroom in the building.

The elders do finally subside, if only because the plan places the risk firmly on the Outguard Head and his immediate family rather than on any of _their_ close relatives. Kita demonstrates her chakra-binding seal on an impatient Madara for their benefit –he collapses to the floor gasping as soon as it takes, but does manage to wobble to his feet and totter around the room a few minutes later, breath steadying with every step taken– releases her husband so that he can accept the Uchiha clan's formal commitment to making peace with the Senju and then bids her guests a polite goodnight before closing the door behind them and groaning. It's _really_ late now and there's a lot to do tomorrow.

"Kita?" Her husband wraps his arms loosely around her waist, desperate hope in every line of his body.

"This is scary and unprecedented and it's going to be a lot of work," she tells him softly, "but I have faith we will prevail. Izuna will live and we will have peace."

"Thank you," Madara murmurs, gripping her tight and pressing his face into her hair. "Kita thank you, without you–" She hugs him back just as tightly as he shakes, wetness seeping through to her scalp. Today has been a nightmare and a test of everything she's spent her life building, but tomorrow will be better.

It has to be.

* * *

Kita is right; marching down to the Senju border in full armour and shouting does indeed summon a Senju patrol in short order. They agree to take the scroll he throws at their heads back to their Clan Head, so Madara then runs all the way back to the compound and hastily strips out of his gear so that Yori can carry out the agreed-upon eye surgery in Izuna's bedroom.

It's a surprisingly speedy procedure, one the Uchiha have used again and again over the centuries; barely half an hour later he's looking around at a world that is in sharper focus than he's seen without sharingan in almost a _decade_ as Kita paints her eye-protecting seal onto Izuna's temples.

"It's got to be visible, so the Senju know what precautions we've taken," his wife says absently as she slides an open scroll covered in kanji, lines and symbols under Izuna's neck, "but if this ends up going on every member of the clan we can hide it under the hairline. No need to advertise that it's there, after all."

"What are you calling this one?" Izuna wheezes. Kita's pain relief seals are dangerous in the long run as they prevent a person from noticing that they're doing themselves damage, so Izuna is just having to suffer quietly for now. At least he won't be suffering for very much longer.

Kita's lips twitch; Madara is already looking forward to the inevitable pun. His wife likes her puns. "It's a hands-off seal," she says cheerfully. "People will keep their hands off your eyes, or their hands will come off at the wrist."

Izuna trembles. "Ow, ow ow!" He gasps, tears welling up in his eyes. "Don't make me _laugh_ like that!" He flaps a hand, hitting her leg. "That was _dreadful_!"

Madara thoroughly approves of this new seal; he's tempted to make it compulsory, in the Outguard at least. "What about necessary eye surgery?" Eye surgery is one thing the Uchiha are probably better at than the Senju –implants and swaps, as people do take eye injuries on the battlefield sometimes– but with Yori's healing technique the recovery period is cut down from a week of blindness under bandages to a mere half-hour. They also know Kita's immune-boosting seals don't cause the body to reject another's eyes, which had been an early concern that a retired Outguard member volunteered to test for a few years back. He's still in good health now, so that's proof enough.

"A seal master with access to the encryption key can remove the seal," Kita says, picking up her brush again, "and for a brief examination, if both the patient and the practitioner channel chakra into the seal at the same time it will temporarily open to allow for physical contact. However neither a chakra examination nor applying healing will set it off; it _specifically_ counters physical attempts to puncture or remove the eye, as well as chakra-assisted attempts to sever the optic nerve."

"By removing the hand," Madara finishes. "Put it on me too, afterwards?"

His wife blinks at him. "Erm, let me fine-tune it a bit first? This is a bit rough and ready so I'm planning on taking it off once we get Izuna back. I want to incorporate a dead man's switch, to liquefy the eyeballs if the body they're in has been dead for more than a day, and fine-tune the whole structure so it's a bit more elegant. This is pretty crude."

"As you say then." If Kita thinks she can make the seal _better_ than Madara is more than happy to wait for her to be satisfied with its quality.

"Right, this shouldn't hurt," Kita says firmly, "so if it does tell me _immediately_ so I can remove it. Here we go: three, two, one, seal!"

There's a flash of blue and all the ink converges on Izuna's temples, forming little hand-print shapes with the palm outstretched as if to ward off a blow. Kita then applies a pain-blocking seal to Izuna's bare shoulder.

His brother blinks, slowly rolls his eyes one way and then the other, then briefly activates his sharingan. "Nothing hurts."

"Try Mangekyō for me; that channels a lot of chakra and I want to be sure the seal doesn't obstruct it."

Izuna's eyes twist into a new and unfamiliar pattern that is a mix of his and Madara's former Mangekyō. "Still nothing," he assures her, managing a shadow of his usual cocky grin.

Kita sits back on her heels and sighs, tugging the now-blank scroll out of the way. "Perfect. Now I'm going to replace this seal with a similar one that will reduce pain rather than numbing it completely, so you can try to sleep a bit. You need all the rest you can get."

Once the shōji to Izuna's room is closed behind them, Kita gently leads him into the dining room and puts a kettle over the iori for tea. Madara lets the calm steadiness of her movements and the familiarity of the process soothe him, waiting patiently for his wife to pour the tea into their cups and decide what it is she wants to say.

"You've mentioned a few times that you and Hashirama had an idea for a village," she says once the tea has brewed and has been poured. "Will you tell me about it?"

Madara gratefully seizes the distraction. "Do you have some paper, so I can draw it?"

Kita immediately opens her seal workbox and produces a large sheet of hemp paper, moving back one of the tatami to lay it down on the wooden floor below. "Like this?"

"Perfect." He carefully picks out a stub of charcoal rather than one of her brushes; it wouldn't do to damage her sealing tools. "We thought it could look a bit like this…"

Four hours and a meal later the village plan has undergone three separate redesigns to account for Kita's ideas –piped water and sewers are indeed an excellent idea, as are rules to ensure every house has a suitable garden for growing their own vegetables– and her very valid point that to get the daimyo on board, it's probably better to start the village as a trading post with workshop space for craftspeople rather than everybody moving in together right away. That gives both clans time to adjust to the idea and reduces the pressure on those still grieving, and also provides space for any other clans who might want to acquire space in their new trading centre to do so.

With this in mind, Madara has redesigned Konohagakure from the river outwards, including sewer lines and filtering stations so they don't smother all the fish in waste, taking care to leave large areas of forest intact inside the outer boundary so the clan won't have to go beyond the walls to harvest wood for charcoal. Not that he's going to stop them, but it's better to have sources close at hand in the winter months.

He's not sure what the Senju will need, but he's set aside space for their fields and made sure there's room for a shop and restaurant district not too far from the manufacturing district, as well as plenty of acreage for housing and orchards and vegetable gardens. There's also lots of free space, so redesigning things here and there won't be too much trouble so long as he keeps the road grid consistent. Kita's right that a grid is much better than a web reaching out from a single point; it lets people move around without all having to pass through the town centre. Less secure from a military point of view perhaps, but they're not exactly building a military outpost or a clan compound, are they? Konohagakure is supposed to be a centre for _peace_ , so the layout should reflect that too. The outer wall is as much for keeping the wildlife out and making sure children don't get lost as anything else.

He likes this new version even more than the one he came up with alongside Hashirama as a child; Kita's suggestions make the whole project feel so much more _achievable_ than he's ever hoped would be possible.

Maybe by this time next year they'll even have started building it.

* * *

"Stop being so pessimistic, Tobirama! This is great news! After Izuna's injury in yesterday's battle Madara must have decided to finally make peace!"

Tobirama is not convinced; he spent yesterday watching Madara's chakra flick jarringly in and out of sight within the Uchiha compound, shifting abruptly from desperate and terrified to grimly determined, then finally to this morning's tightly contained focus. Whatever Madara is planning, it is unlikely to be good for the Senju.

He would have a better idea of _what_ was being planned were it not for those shielding seals scattered across the Uchiha compound; they make tracking anybody moving within their lands intensely challenging. The abruptness of each transition from sealed to unsealed area is disconcerting and means he has to consciously ignore what the Uchiha clan are doing when out on missions or else risk being fatally distracted. It's still fairly distracting at home when he's working on new techniques or fine-tuning older ones, but he's got used to limiting his perspective while experimenting.

Since those seals have been created the Senju have made a point of trying to locate and neutralise any Uchiha who use fūinjutsu, but Tobirama isn't convinced they've caught them all. Not when every single Uchiha carries with them a range of equipment clearly created by a fūinjutsu specialist. Those large, oddly flattened bags with the profoundly alien storage seal inside are evidently standard issue, so there is probably a retired clan member back at their compound making them to somebody's sharingan-precise example, and the set of brightly coloured omamori every single one of them wears hanging from a sash or belt –purpose unknown, as Tobirama has not been able to get hold of even _one_ of them to take apart– also appear standardised.

"The conditions are suspect, Anija," he says instead, sighing. Why would Madara specify armour but no weapons? It's not like lack of edged steel makes that much of a difference among shinobi; they all have chakra at their fingertips.

"Don't be ridiculous, Tobi, it'll be _fine_! Madara's just finally recognising the importance of our dream for peace!"

Tobirama doesn't answer; he's uncomfortably aware that Madara has at no point _stopped_ wanting peace; he's just going about achieving it from a completely different direction to Hashirama, one his brother doesn't even seem to have _noticed._ The Uchiha clan might be gradually losing on the battlefield, but on the financial side there is Uchiha-made silk in the capital's markets and Uchiha-made ceramics are increasingly popular prestige pieces, as are Uchiha-made razors; Tobirama's even bought one of those himself, as the craftsmanship is genuinely excellent. They make some of the best ink he's ever used. Their warriors are all well-armoured and properly armed, to better standards than the Senju are even; the Senju's only edge is superior manpower, greater diversity in fighting styles and the advantage his own sensing ability brings, along of course with the fact that his brother is markedly stronger than Madara is.

Madara has made his clan financially prosperous and his warriors are clearly all well-trained and well-equipped; he even has medics lurking behind the front lines to treat the injured as quickly as possible. So where are all those Uchiha _going_? Tobirama is fairly sure he's not seen enough corpses to account for missing faces and chakra signatures. Has Madara moved them elsewhere, smuggled some of his clansmen out of Uchiha clan grounds hidden by seals so that Tobirama cannot track them?

Whatever is going on, he suspects Kita-san has a hand in Madara's demand for a meeting under truce. Izuna is adamantly opposed to negotiating with the Senju but the polite, contained woman he met at the capital is a force to be reckoned with, all the more so because he knows so little about her. She has never been on the battlefield that he's noticed and spends far more time in the Uchiha compound's concealed areas than in its visible ones.

Tobirama suspects she is his counterpart at Madara's side, not Izuna. Her stratagem with the tea ceremony was impeccable; he's _still_ not sure he caught all the nuances there. But she's made no overt moves since and that worries him, especially since it was the Uchiha who broke the ceasefire after his father's death two years ago.

Whatever the game being played, he really doesn't like the shape it's taking.

* * *

Kita successfully argues her way onto the delegation. She is the clan's seal master, so she should be the one applying the seals to Tobirama; they all know he is also a sealing expert so letting one of her apprentices do the work creates the possibility that he might wiggle out of less expertly-made shackles. Hashirama may also argue for additional conditions, which she is best qualified to modify her own work to encompass.

Madara agrees on the condition that she wear Izuna's half-plate armour under her coat and has plenty of time-out seals ready. Well he calls them knockout seals, but they're time-out seals. Because once applied, the victim is in time-out until she releases them.

The seal itself looks like an oval pocket watch face with a knob on the top, a central spot and no hands. She's made timed ones –which do have hands– but the indefinite ones are still her favourites. They're far simpler to work with and she can apply them by touch in a split-second. At a distance with chakra even, although that takes a little more focus.

It's been a while since she wore working clothes and wrapped her legs and arms, but you really don't ever forget how. Once properly dressed Kita lets her husband wrap her in the padded under-armour and fit the armour over the top –it's a bit awkward adjusting it to cover her breasts, but she's slim and barely a hand's-width shorter than her brother-in-law so it could be worse– and then puts on her own coat over the top. The patchwork coat her little sisters made for her with Toyotama-hime in dragon form coiling across all the lining panels and around the sleeves, various layers of jūnihitoe draped across her body at intervals and other feminine accessories floating in the waves around her, a feather-thatched hut on the beach on the lower hem and the sun and moon on her shoulders flanked by storm clouds to mark her as wife to an Amaterasu.

Kita loves her coat. Her sisters really outdid themselves, even though she had to resew all the seals stitched into the canvas core when they gave out after the first year. She does up her hair in a basic utilitarian bun, slides her sealing box –which is differently patterned to her everyday writing box– into the pocket in her sleeve generally reserved for a holdout knife, adds a jar of previously prepared ink to her other sleeve and heads outside to join the rest of the group.

Madara is taking significant representatives from every lineage and four warriors of no lineage; this means that eight-year-old Kagutsuchi has to come along in his tiny patchwork coat –cut down from his late uncle's– which is fairly nerve-racking, but with the way two of the Outguard members are hovering around him, she's sure he'll be fine. Likely whisked off his feet and away from the battlefield the moment things start going downhill. Izuna is being carefully carried by the other two lower-ranking Outguard members –both with medical training– and E, her handless apprentice, is lurking behind him with her brush held lightly between her teeth.

E is an example of what Uchiha determination can achieve in the face of severe difficulty; she relearned all her fire techniques after the Senju deliberately went after her hands to stop her writing seals mid-fight, then learned to write again for good measure. She's not even twenty and determinedly teaching herself to use chakra strings like the wandering bunraku puppeteers of Wind Country do; she's already up to five simultaneous strings and likely to continue improving. Soon she's have her dexterity back, even without physical hands.

Kita's other apprentice with his prosthetic lower leg and sprung foot –another bunraku item, bought with Uchiha ink and steel wire alongside the lessons on chakra strings– will not be coming; he's babysitting the girls for her. Iō's good with children; he lives in one of the orphan houses and helps train the younger ones, so they have something to build on once they're old enough for official training. No chakra manipulation, but dexterity games and stretches and meditation. All important basic skills every Uchiha needs.

She hopes Hashirama really _is_ as blindly devoted to his dream of peace in real life as he was in the Naruto story. If he is even _slightly_ pragmatic he's not going to go along with their idea at _all_.

* * *

The Uchiha party does at least suggest they're not acting entirely in bad faith; there's a grey-haired woman with a limp and an eight-year-old boy in their group along with the expected warriors and two shinobi are even carrying Izuna, who looks incredibly unwell. His skin is yellowed, clammy with sweat, and his eyes are sunken into their sockets; Tobirama's impressed he's upright, actually. Still, that Madara has _carried_ his brother all the way here does imply this is both serious and official, as there is no way the Uchiha Head would drag his obviously injured younger brother onto a battlefield, especially not when he's snugly wrapped up in a quilted blanket inside his coat rather than wearing armour; the lower edge of the blanket is clearly visible above Izuna's ankles.

The familiar woman hovering behind Izuna glares at him, twirling the brush in her mouth with her tongue. Clearly cutting her hands off hasn't been enough to keep her from pursuing fūinjutsu, although it has at least removed her from the battlefield. Still, Tobirama's surprised the Uchiha aren't using exploding notes yet; they're one of the easiest fūinjutsu applications there is. The Uchiha clan uses all kinds of other pyrotechnics, but he's yet to see a single exploding note.

Then again, Tobirama doesn't exactly use them himself.

Madara steps up, Kita at his left with several familiar warriors flanking them both along with the older woman and the boy, evidently in some kind of official order of precedence going by how some of them quickly change places and two warriors hastily step backwards out of formation, shadowing the youngest clansman like a personal guard. "Senju Hashirama, you have called for peace," the Uchiha Head says loudly, "but the Uchiha have seen little evidence of your sincerity. We have had nothing but war from you since your ascension, and many civilian members of our clan have died at the hands and blades of your warriors."

What civilians?! The Uchiha clan has _civilian_ members? Every last Senju is a fully trained shinobi no matter what else they do in their free time; the idea of anybody _not_ being trained when they are all at war is unconscionable. Never mind that Tobirama has never seen or sensed a _single_ adult Uchiha without refined chakra reserves and elemental training. What new trick is this?

"Therefore we wish to test your sincerity," Madara concludes.

"Of course!" Hashirama agrees immediately. "What did you have in mind, Madara?"

"I will entrust my injured brother to your hands for three weeks," Madara says evenly, "and you will allow my wife to bind your brother's chakra before he is given into my hands. In three weeks time, if both still live, we will each return our hostages and set a date for writing a formal treaty."

So this is the shape of things; Izuna is dying and the Uchiha wish to kill him in return.

"I have no objections," his older brother says without hesitation; Tobirama flinches. It is one thing to know in his heart that there is nothing his brother values more than his idea of peace, not even his own kin, but to hear it said so clearly before enemies…

"Anija!"

Hashirama _glares_ at him, chakra flexing threateningly; Tobirama ducks his head and quickly starts stripping out of his armour. If he is going to die, the Uchiha will at least not get to keep any trophies.

"Izuna's pancreas is ruptured," Madara continues, chakra unbearably hot but tightly contained, "so he will require considerable medical attention, which he has agreed your clan may provide. Seals have been placed over his eyes so they cannot be touched, and over his heart so that should he die I will know immediately. The seal tag on his collarbone is to reduce pain, so that he can be moved without vomiting or passing out. It is reusable, and will be left with him for ease of travel."

A highly complicated injury to be sure, especially if proper treatment has not yet even begun so many days after it was inflicted, but one that is not beyond the Senju's capabilities even though it may be on the limits of what the Uchiha can reliably accomplish. They may even be able to analyse the seal tag for the clan's own use. Tobirama hands over the last of his under-armour to Tōka, removes his happuri and shakes his hair out of his eyes as Kita takes a single step forward, removing a brush from one sleeve and a jar of ink from the other.

So _she_ is the Uchiha's seal master; he should have guessed. The others the Senju have met on battlefields and running missions were evidently apprentices.

"Please remove your shirt and turn to face your brother, Tobirama-san," she tells him politely. Tobirama hesitates for a split-second then does exactly as she requests, fur collar clenched in his hands as he shrugs the thin fabric over his head and lets it hang around his elbows. Having his brother chivvy him onwards to his entirely avoidable death is a humiliation he wishes to avoid.

The light, deft touch of chakra-infused ink against his skin is almost gentle, the fire of Kita's chakra nature warm and soothing rather than the fierce, biting heat he is more used to from those Uchiha he meets in battle. Not that Tobirama expects her to kill him any less effectively; fire is fire, be it in the hearth or running wild in the forest.

There is no sound save distant birdsong, a stream running over rocks a way west, the variously regular breathing of those present and the small sounds of brush on skin and the clink of the ink bottle. Time stretches as Tobirama allows an enemy to do to him what he has never allowed any ally to even _attempt_ , because his brother demands it.

He finally hears the light chink of an ink bottle being capped and a rustle of sleeves. "Hiei-san, Yajuro-san."

There is a creak of fabric and armour as the two men carrying Izuna appear in Tobirama's peripheral vision, the woman with the brush in her teeth hovering protectively behind them.

"If two Senju would step forwards to accept my brother-in-law into their care, I would be most grateful," Kita says politely, moving up beside Tobirama and briefly tugging his shirt back up towards his shoulders. Tobirama pulls it over his head as calmly as he can; he has a seal painted on his back. A seal he has not seen with a purpose he cannot guess at. It spans his entire spine from nape to waist and curls around his sides and shoulders as well as down his upper arms. The moment Kita activates it –which requires a simple flex of her chakra, not even a touch– he will be wholly in her power. No; he is there already. All that is left is for the axe to fall.

He refuses to let his fear show. He will die with dignity.

"Chigi, Shurō," Tōka says sharply, carefully handing his armour off to Ryūsha so as to have her hands free. The two named shinobi step forwards, hands raised and fingers splayed, until they are just a few paces from the defensive clump of Uchiha.

"This seal will severely limit Tobirama-san's access to his chakra," Kita says evenly into the hush. "When I tested it on Madara-san he fell to his knees and struggled to breathe for the first few seconds. Once I am certain Tobirama-san is sufficiently recovered to travel, Hiei-san and Yajuro-san will hand off Izuna-san to Chigi-san and Shurō-san and the hostage exchange will be completed."

Tobirama knows he is far too late to back out of this –not that he would ever go against his brother– but he is uneasily aware that Kita is going to great lengths to act in visible good faith. More, Madara is _letting_ her. The Uchiha Head is allowing his wife to command his shinobi in his presence and address his enemies on his behalf, which most would take as a sign of weakness. It _cannot_ be weakness; Madara is not weak and neither is he politically inept. This is deliberate. Why?

"Fūin."

Even with the warning, Tobirama is still driven to his hands and knees, shaking and gasping. His chakra… what _is_ this seal that he can barely even _feel_ it?! His sensing range has collapsed almost to nothing –maybe a hundred metres at best– and he is suddenly cold.

Nobody moves, although Tōka's chakra spikes in agitation as he shudders and tries to breathe evenly. Tobirama carefully wraps his collar around his throat without rising from his knees, attaching it to his shirt with shaking hands, then, once his stomach has finally settled, tries to stand.

His knees wobble alarmingly; Kita grabs his upper arm and steadies him as the chakra of every Senju present tenses at her abrupt movement.

"I am… not harmed, Anija," he manages, leaning into his captor. He feels hollowed out and terribly weak, but it is not the all-encompassing fatigue of chakra exhaustion. His chakra is still _there_ , he just can't touch it. It is firmly locked behind his chakra gates. The loss is a shock, but he is already beginning to adjust.

Chigi and Shurō clasp hands so the two Uchiha facing them can turn around and gently back Izuna into their arms; the way the man sways, face grey and a moan slipping between his teeth at the transfer, indicates that even with the seal fluttering at his throat he is still in terrible pain. The woman hangs back, teeth digging dents in her brush handle and sleeve-ends hanging empty.

Tobirama lets himself be turned around and led back to where Madara is waiting, arms folded tightly across his armoured chest.

"The exchange of hostages has been made," the Uchiha Head announces, chakra all grim satisfaction. "We shall meet again in three weeks time." His eyes slide over to his younger brother, whose face is shiny with sweat as he leans into Chigi, eyes glassy and chakra wavering with every spasm of pain.

"Until then, Madara!" Hashirama agrees brightly, beaming at his counterpart and ignoring Tobirama entirely. "I promise to take good care of your little brother!"

"And I shall do likewise," Madara counters coolly as the entire Uchiha party moves backwards into the trees. Tobirama struggles to keep up with the pace being set as his clan fades out of range behind him, despite Madara's hand clamped around his upper arm dragging him onwards. The Uchiha Clan Head growls, then lifts him off his feet entirely and tosses him over his shoulder before running even faster.

Tobirama does not protest the indignity of being treated like a sack of rice. He knows it wouldn't do him any good.

He is still alive. That will have to be enough.


	10. Chapter 10

Reality has defied Tobirama's expectations so many times already today that he should probably take a few moments to seriously reconsider his assumptions regarding the Uchiha clan. He expected to be killed in front of his brother, yet was not. After being unceremoniously carted up to the Uchiha compound like so much baggage he expected to be housed in a cell, or at least an isolated building reserved for 'guests' to the clan where he would be constantly under guard. Except that Madara does not do that either. Upon being set back on his feet beside the gatehouse –so that Madara can crouch down to greet two eager toddlers; his daughters?– Tobirama is firmly herded into the heart of the Uchiha compound and towards the finest building at its centre.

The Clan Head's home. Well, this way he will certainly be _extremely_ accessible to Madara should Izuna happen to die in Senju hands; perhaps that is the point. However there is also the matter of the little girls Madara is now carrying and the three older children who hurry into view in the front hall as Madara announces their arrival from the genkan.

Carefully putting on a pair of guest slippers, Tobirama judges the older girl to be maybe thirteen, the younger one to be ten or eleven and the boy to be eight at the most. The older girl is wearing a printed cotton kimono, but the younger two are both in regular indigo clothing such as the Uchhia warriors wear, complete with pale arm- and leg-wraps.

"Madara-nii!" The oldest girl hugs her clan head around the ribs, then pulls back to stare curiously at Tobirama. "Is this Senju-san?"

"Why is he _here_ , Madara-nii?" The boy asks warily, hovering back in front of the other girl, feet planted defensively.

"Is this why my futon's in Izuna-nii's room now, Madara-nii?" The younger girl asks, her eyes bright and fearless. They could be siblings or simply distant cousins; Uchiha all resemble each-other more closely than the Senju do, being a bloodline clan and marrying internally far more often than externally. Even their chakra is similar, all carrying a distinctive flavour of fire, feathers and something complex and faintly aromatic, almost like incense; distinguishing one from the other by chakra alone takes a lot of practice and on the battlefield Tobirama honestly relies mostly on their relative strength to do so. Madara in particular is highly distinctive.

"Yes, Benten-chan; it's why there're new seals on the shōji as well," Madara says calmly, handing the two toddlers in his arms over to Kita then stepping out of the genkan and ruffling all three older children's hair in turn. "Midori, Minakata, what brings you two here?"

"Naka and I have cleaned your coat, Madara-nii," the older girl –Midori, evidently– says innocently, batting her eyelashes at her Clan Head. "I was just delivering it." And being nosy, evidently. Madara's hostage exchange plan was clearly known to the Uchiha clan beforehand.

"Okaasan sent me over with a message, Madara-nii," the boy –Minakata– says solemnly.

"What's the message then?" Madara asks, reaching out, grabbing Tobirama's arm and dragging him further into the building, Minakata keeping pace as they walk into a large and well-appointed central reception room, leaving the girls behind in the entrance hall with Kita.

"Okaasan says you can gamble with your own life and your brother's life, but if anything happens to me, Yasa-chan or Shiro-chan as a result of your foolishness she will murder you with a smile on her face and make Hikaku-nii Outguard Head," Minakata says cheerfully. Tobirama twitches uncomfortably at the blatantly insubordinate words, but Madara seems to be more resigned than anything else.

"Oba-san would too," he mutters, briefly rolling his eyes to the ceiling with a sigh. "Kita-san's got Senju-san sorted out, Minakata-kun," he adds in normal tones, looking the boy firmly in the eye. "He's not going anywhere or doing anything without her say-so."

"Okaasan says Tajima-sama betrothed Kita-nee to you because she's got the cool head you desperately need," Minakata comments innocently. "Is that true?"

Tobirama tries to pretend he isn't hearing _any_ of this.

Madara snorts, blatantly amused and not even slightly offended. "Go home and tell your Okaasan to leave diplomatic matters to me and your Kita-nee and to mind her own business."

"Yes Madara-sama!" The boy chirps, bowing and darting past them. "Bye Kita-nee!"

"Goodbye Minakata-kun!"

"My aunt's late husband was one of my father's most trusted," Madara adds, glancing at Tobirama, "and one of mine, until the kunoichi you gave your armour to killed him last year."

Ah. Tobirama thinks he vaguely remembers the man in question; he mostly fights Izuna, but he's crossed blades and jutsu with various others of the Uchiha elite on occasion. Briefly.

"Toto? Who dis?"

Tobirama looks down at the toddler tugging on Madara's trouser leg just above his knee. The messy-haired toddler stares up at him, utterly fearless.

"This is Tobirama-san, Toshiko. He's our guest here for the next few weeks." Madara glares at him, daring him to disagree, but Tobirama sees no need to distress a small child with the realities of war.

"Bira-jī-san?" Toshiko asks.

"Tobirama-san is younger than I am, Toshiko," Madara drawls, eyes alight with amusement. Tobirama however finds a degree of comfort in the familiar misunderstanding; the Senju certainly have a wider range of colouring than the Uchiha, whose hair is all in shades of dark brown and black, but there is nobody else in the Senju with hair as ivory-pale as his.

"But he has old hair!"

"He has Hatake hair, bean-sprout," Kita says, walking into the room with the other girl in her arms. "Tobirama-san's mother was a Hatake, and all Hatake have light hair."

"Oh." Toshiko considers this. "Sorry, Bira-oji. I'm Toshi, pleased to meet you!"

"An' I'm Azami!" The other little girl chirps, wiggling until Kita sets her down on the floor and then dashing over to stare at him more closely. Her hair is less generally messy and more outright spiky. "You have a funny shirt."

Tobirama _has_ noticed that the usual Uchiha mode of dress is nothing like the Senju one. Both these little girls are wearing long-sleeved kimono shirts and loose trousers, like all Uchiha shinobi wear on the battlefield under their wraps, armour and coats, except in a cheery floral print rather than plain indigo like the older children. Small Senju children usually wear striped hakama and close-fitting shirts under haori, the girls included.

"It's not funny, Azami; it's just not an Uchiha shirt," Madara says firmly. "Like how the Aburame messenger was dressed differently."

Azami considers this, sucking on her fingers.

"You dressed like a Hatake, Bira-oji?" Toshiko asks innocently. Tobirama considers what he knows of his mother's clan; they do indeed dress fairly similarly to the Senju in terms of style, if with different clan colours and warmer layers to account for climate differences.

"I am, yes." The fur collar he wears is certainly a more usual Hatake accessory. It was his mother's after all.

Toshiko nods seriously. "Wanna come see the garden, Bira-oji?"

Tobirama hesitates, glancing at Madara. He does enjoy the company of children and would never _dream_ of harming either of these little girls, but it is vanishingly unlikely that any Uchiha will take his word on it. Also, after being escorted up here with his chakra sealed, he is feeling a little chilled despite the spring weather being generally warm.

"Tobirama-san doesn't have a coat, Toshi-chan," Kita says easily, "so he can't go out in the garden."

"Can't he borrow toto's spare coat?" Azami asks, looking from Tobirama to her parents as though trying to interpret the subtext ongoing in this otherwise innocuous conversation.

"Don't you think he deserves his own coat, Azami-chan?" Kita asks lightly.

"You gonna make Bira-oji a coat, kaka?" Toshiko asks, eyes wide and bouncing on her toes.

Tobirama is sure he is missing at _least_ half this conversation. Is there something significant about having a coat?

"Wife," Madara says warningly, but there's no real edge to it.

"He _needs_ a coat, husband," Kita repeats, mischief bubbling subtly in her chakra.

"Bira-oji needs a coat, toto! He'll get cold outside!" Azami agrees firmly.

Madara briefly covers his face with a hand and mutters something incoherent and faintly plaintive about women being the death of him. It's a shockingly human side to a man Tobirama has only previously seen doing everything in his power to obliterate Hashirama and any other Senju who gets in his way, utterly confident in his power and devastatingly perceptive of others' weaknesses. "Fine, your kaasan can make Tobirama-san a coat, and when he has it you can show him the garden. But you are _not_ to complain if it takes Kaasan a long time." He folds his arms, making stern eye-contact with both little girls in turn. "Your kaasan has lots to do and a proper coat takes time to make."

"Yes toto," the toddlers chorus seriously, bobbing little bows.

"Good girls. Do you have your bento?"

"Naka-nee has them, toto!"

"Well then you'd better go and get them if you want to eat lunch with us, hadn't you?"

"Yes toto!" The girls dash out of the room; there is a scuffling in the genkan as they put their sandals on before scrambling out of the door.

"I mean it about the coat, Tobirama-san," Kita says mildly. "You _will_ freeze without one, especially with that seal. I'll fetch a winter kimono you can wear over your everyday clothes for the time being." She walks across the room.

"Whose kimono are you stealing, wife?" Madara asks wryly.

"Your father's, husband," she replies, smiling over her shoulder before opening one of the shōji and leaving the room.

Tobirama feels uncomfortably as though he is intruding on a private moment. Spending time with his brother and Mito is never like this.

"You will be sleeping in here," Madara says, crossing the room and opening another shōji. "Kita has sealed it so that nobody can open the doors while you are inside and to blur your sensing ability."

It is a relief to have a room that locks on the _inside_ rather than a cell that locks on the outside. However... "Why are you so determined to obscure my senses, Madara?" Tobirama asks, walking into the room and turning round to face the Uchiha Head; not being able to sense what is going on around him makes it difficult for him to settle, as he is _used_ to being able to see beyond what his eyes offer and to lose that is uncomfortable. He is already twitchy at having his range so dramatically reduced –that the Uchiha compound's masking seals are no less impenetrable at close range does not help– and the prospect of _more_ limitations is unnerving.

Madara raises an eyebrow. "Forgive me for wanting privacy with my wife in my own home, Senju," he says dryly.

Tobirama feels his face redden at the implications; that is _not_ something he's really given much thought to before this moment. Through his chakra senses people are bright and sexless blurs and he's never seriously considered what proximity between them might mean.

Damn Madara! Now it is going to _haunt_ him!

Kita arrives in time to distract from the awkwardness, handing Tobirama a rusty brown padded kimono with a red and darker brown hexagonal tortoiseshell pattern. "Here. Come to the kitchen once you've changed; I'm making tea."

Madara follows his wife out of the room, closing the shōji firmly behind him; Tobirama feels the locking seal engage. Cradling the folded kimono against his chest, he turns to look at the room properly: it is well-sized, with elegant and elaborate paintings and carvings on the walls and fusuma separating it from the rooms on either side, as well as above the shōji leading into the central space and to the engawa opposite. There is more elaborate panelling on the ceiling overhead, the tatami on the floor are well-kept and a single, rather fine futon is rolled up in one corner of the room. There is also a plain clothing rack, a wash basin and towel, an empty bookcase –implying there are books elsewhere he could borrow perhaps?– and a rather battered low desk set off to one side.

Tobirama is used to chairs and tables and raised bed frames with proper mattresses, but Uchiha clearly do things more traditionally. It's a beautiful room and much finer than he was expecting. He shivers; he really is cold without his chakra. Making himself sick would be foolish, so he carefully removes his collar and unfolds the kimono, pulling it on over his shirt and trousers and adjusting it carefully before tying it closed with the sash provided. It's been a while since he wore a kimono; the Senju generally don't bother except at civilian festivals or when spying for missions, but if this belonged to Tajima then the Uchiha clearly consider them everyday wear when off the battlefield.

He is probably going to end up borrowing more traditional clothing while he is here; he can't exactly wear the same shirt and trousers for three weeks straight. His dignity and sense of smell won't allow it. His mother's clan are all trackers and hunters as much as warriors and while he does primarily trace people by their chakra, that is not the only means he uses. Not that he talks about it much; who would he discuss it with? His brother certainly does not share this sensitivity. Tobirama had to learn from his mother's snow leopard summons.

He hopes Hashirama will be responsible about the paperwork even without him there to remind his brother to get things done. And that Mito won't mind taking on some of the more diplomatic letter-writing; if he'd known this was Madara's plan he could have arranged matters suitably to account for his absence, but it came as a complete surprise and his brother jumping immediately at the opportunity means he didn't even get a chance to give Tōka the names of the people best qualified to see to the different things he is responsible for. Something to clarify later, most definitely.

With Izuna's injury to fuss over and Mito and Tōka keeping an eye on things, Hashirama shouldn't manage to do anything _too_ irreversibly foolish in the next three weeks…

* * *

Madara cradles his teacup and breathes. Izuna is still alive, his chakra pulsing like a heartbeat in the seal on Madara's shoulder. Hashirama agreed to the hostage exchange and promised to look after his little brother, so it is very likely that he will get Izuna _back_ at the end of the three weeks. His little brother is _not_ going to die. The Uchiha clan is going to have peace, real peace.

Of course, he is going to have to deal with having Senju Tobirama in his house for the better part of a month, but he can do that. He would do _anything_ for Izuna.

Madara doesn't believe that Hashirama would do anything for _his_ little brother though, not after what he saw and heard today. Or rather, what he _didn't_ see or hear. Hashirama didn't ask Madara to take care of _his_ little brother, or ask for a way to keep track of Tobirama's health. He didn't even ask Tobirama to _agree_ , he just agreed on his behalf and then wordlessly threatened him when Tobirama protested.

Madara is not impressed. He made friends with Hashirama in the first place because they both wanted peace _for their younger brothers_. When did his friend forget who their dream of peace was _for_? Is Hashirama still holding onto childish grudges over Tobirama commanding most of Butsuma's attention back when they were younger?

His wife watches him contentedly over her own cup, the slightly smaller match to the one he is using. The spouse-cups he bought her almost half a lifetime ago and that they have drunk tea out of together ever since.

" _Must_ you make a coat for him, Kita?"

She nods. "Everybody shinobi-trained unconsciously uses their chakra to regulate their body temperature a little Madara, even if they're not fire natured. Without a coat he'll chill, and then we'll have a sick Senju to nurse."

That does _not_ appeal. "You are going to lend him more of Otōsama's clothes, aren't you." It's not a question; Madara can even see the practicality of it, despite the Senju being rather more solidly built than his father was and slightly taller besides. It's not like Tobirama has anything else to wear; he didn't know he would get traded to another clan for three weeks before leaving his house this morning, unlike Izuna who has several changes of clothing in an umbrella bag hidden in the folds of the blanket wrapped around him.

"That is the least controversial option," his wife points out gently.

"I'm not sure putting the Senju crest on the back of a coat he's going to wear around the compound is a good plan though," Madara replies, letting her point stand. "Considering how many we've lost, it may be a little _too_ confrontational."

"I can print it on the lining," Kita replies, "and leave the outside plain. Or put some other symbol on the outside; his name, perhaps? Or the Hatake clan mon, so that he can honour both his parents and simply reverse the coat after returning to the Senju."

"I would prefer a plain or minimally patterned coat, with just the Senju mon on the inside," Tobirama says, walking into the dining room in Madara's father's winter kimono over his usual outfit, which looks a bit different to what Madara is used to since the Senju isn't wearing his armoured greaves; his trouser legs are loose around his ankles just under the kimono hem.

"You do not honour your Hatake heritage?" Kita asks mildly.

"My mother died when I was seven, and the Hatake broke off their alliance with the Senju shortly after," Tobirama replies evenly. "I have not met or been introduced to any Hatake relatives, so would not know where to begin."

"My apologies then." Kita sets out one of the guest teacups and fills it; Tobirama cautiously lowers himself to the tatami on the far side of the iori from his Uchiha hosts, but does accept the offered tea.

Madara decides this is a good moment to clarify a few basic facts. "Toshi and Azami both sleep here in the clan hall, as does Benten. They will all be in and out of the building and garden every day, as will various other Uchiha children depending on the day and what their parents or guardians are doing at the time. They may be curious about you, but many of the older children will also be angry so you may prefer to stay in your room." The Senju have orphaned a lot of Uchiha children and Tobirama has participated in quite a bit of that, both indirectly through Senju strategy choices and personally. "There are books and scrolls for leisure reading you can borrow from my study, and paper and ink can be found if you would like to write or draw. You cannot leave the clan compound, but provided there is not too much of an outcry over your presence in the coming days I will grant you the freedom to wander as you wish." He pauses; what else... "I will arrange for an escort, so nobody thinks they can get away with attacking you." Probably one of the children; he did notice the ripple of fondness in Tobirama's chakra when the girls addressed him and there is nobody in the clan who would attack a child.

Tobirama bows his head politely. "I have no complaints about my accommodation," he murmurs. He may have intended to say something else, but at that moment the girls return clutching their bento boxes and Kita gets out the food she has prepared as well; Tobirama hesitates to accept the meal, but it being served from a common dish and Azami being allowed to lick the spoon evidently settles his paranoia.

Madara is a little insulted that the Senju thinks they would use poison like that. He's a hostage for Izuna's wellbeing! Yes, it's possible that he personally may not be the most gracious of hosts, but Tobirama is a guest for now and guests are to be treated _civilly_.

He doesn't mention it though; the girls are at the age where they repeat _everything_ and he wants to keep some of the ugliness of the world outside the clan compound from them a little longer.

* * *

There being three weeks of ceasefire means that her husband is _ridiculously_ busy, as it's suddenly a perfect time for making goods' deliveries –in part because with Tobirama in their compound, the Senju will have a lot more trouble tracking them down– and arranging those is now the Outguard Head's responsibility. Madara is therefore in meetings with Uchiha craftspeople and Outguard squads, discussing markets and prices and consulting letters from various interested parties, so Kita keeps herself busy elsewhere. She measures Tobirama for his coat and ensures he has a range of suitable clothing to choose from, visits Naka to check she can make use of Mama's old dye troughs, pays to have a print sheet cut, takes the time to check in on all her other younger siblings –who are doing fairly well overall, although she does get cried on by Tekari, who is having a rough day– and stops by the stores to take out the materials she will need for her planned coat.

Materials she pays for out of the Outguard Head's funds, seeing as this is technically a diplomatic expense rather than something being made for a specific clansman. She also considers the possibility of having a letter sent to the Senju so they can hand over some of Tobirama's own clothing; she gets the impression he is not used to Uchiha-style clothing and having more of his own things would probably help him feel more like a guest and less like a prisoner.

She'll present the idea to her husband over dinner.

A few days later Kita has printed her fabric and sets about cutting and assembling all the pieces for quilting. She's dyed the coat lining a similar plain medium blue to match Tobirama's armour, the Senju mon painted large and black across the shoulders over the central seam, and the outside is the usual Uchiha indigo with a resist-printed frothy wave pattern wandering freely all over in white. Her plan is to quilt the outer layer along the pattern, reinforcing the curves, and the lining with a simpler geometric diamond motif which harks back to the usual Senju scale armour. The coat will also lack the high Uchiha collar, so that Tobirama can wear his fur wrap over it instead.

So far Tobirama seems happy to spend the days in his room borrowing books and scrolls to read, although this morning he asked for writing materials. Kita has provided him with plenty of paper, but made him swear an oath on the lives of his clan's children that he would not write seals before giving him brush and ink. He hadn't been at all offended by her insistence; evidently he considers such a precaution to be both logical and completely reasonable.

She hasn't yet asked him what he is writing. Possibly a letter to his family; there was a short letter in with the clothing that Hijiri brought up from the border yesterday. As expected, Tobirama looks much more comfortable in his own light blue kosode and trousers, although he is wearing a padded long-sleeved winter shirt underneath as well.

Kita is in two minds about stitching seals into the coat lining. On the one hand, she is so used to doing so that _not_ doing so feels wrong. On the other, Tobirama probably doesn't _want_ a strange seal master hiding things in his clothing. She taps the embroidery needle against her knee, staring sightlessly across the garden. Decisions, decisions…

She senses rather than sees Tobirama emerge onto the engawa and walk around the outside of the building, sitting a respectful distance away from her.

"Tobirama-san?"

"Yes, Kita-san?" He turns to make eye contact.

"Would you like seals stitched into your coat lining?" She won't know if she doesn't ask.

His whole posture shifts from neutral to deeply curious. "You can sew seals? How do you sew seals? What kind–" He cuts himself off. "My apologies, Kita-san, I did not mean to pry."

Kita smiles. "Tobirama-san, perhaps when there is a proper treaty between our clans you may visit again and we can have an in-depth conversation about sealing techniques."

"I would like that very much," he concedes, longing threading through his chakra very briefly. She makes a note of that; it is likely that the only other person he talks to seals about is Mito-san, provided the woman is willing to do so, and possibly his teacher if they are still alive.

Assuming, of course, that he _had_ a teacher. She certainly didn't.

"In the meantime, my seals allow me to strengthen the threads of the coat, reducing everyday wear and tear, as well as to prevent mould and mildew." She is not offering any of the dexterity or calming seals; he is already a terror on the battlefield and doesn't need them. "I also have fire-dampening seals, but I suspect you won't need those in your sleeve cuffs."

"I am water-natured, so no," Tobirama agrees dryly, smiling just a little at her verbal peace offering. "The other seals however sound very practical. I take it Madara-san and Izuna-san have the same seals stitched into their coats?"

"Among others," Kita agrees lightly. "There is little else I can do to keep them safe, not being a warrior myself."

Tobirama lets the conversation end there, so Kita takes up her needle and thread and stitches sterilisation seals into the canvas panels where the armpits and lower back will be, then around the wrists and lower hems where stains build up. She knows Tobirama is watching her intently, but she is confident he will not discern the key to stitched seals without having the mental aspect explained to him –he will doubtless have noticed already the chakra infused in her thread– so snips off a fresh length of thread and moves on to the strengthening seals. Those have to be stitched on at regular intervals across each panel, forming a kind of network throughout the coat, so they take rather longer.

Not so terribly long as all that though really; once they're done she can layer in the padding and strategically quilt the layers together here and there, so they stay in place while she assembles the coat and does some of the seams. Stitching in the sleeves is best left until last.

"Do you make many coats?"

Kita glances up at Tobirama with a rueful smile. "I am not at all highly-placed in the Uchiha clan by birth, Tobirama-san," she confesses. "Making the clan coats is my family craft. However when I was twelve Tajima-sama caught me stitching seals into his nephew's clothing and summarily betrothed me to Madara-san."

"I see." He probably _did_ see. "You seem very happy together."

"We are, but what we have we have built for ourselves." Tajima-sama does get to claim any of the credit, for all that she and Madara probably never would have exchanged anything more than polite discussions about coats if not for his interference. Well, unless she decided to be brave and proactive, but that's not how things happened so she will never know.

Conversation stalls again, but the silence isn't uncomfortable. Kita finishes half the seams and picks up her curved sashiko needle again; now for the tedious part. Well, maybe not so tedious as all that; she only has to do enough that the padding doesn't move around and with the new rolls of almost felted cotton padding that the clan has found a supplier for, it doesn't take nearly as much stitching to keep everything in place.

With a bit of luck, she will have this coat finished some time tomorrow.

* * *

Tobirama is still not entirely sure how he feels about Kita-san _making_ him a coat. On the one hand, she is clearly very practiced at it and her quiet explanation of her background makes it clear she takes pride in her skills, but on the other she is the wife of the Uchiha Clan Head. Surely she has more important things to do with her time? Could she not have delegated the work? It is evident she doesn't make coats for the entire clan, so there _must_ be others with the necessary skills, and the speed with which she assembled the garment suggests that doing so would not be a challenge for even an inexperienced craftsperson. Even considering the seals.

But she has made him a coat just as good as the ones her clansmen wear –if clearly without as many seals hidden in the lining– and put the Senju symbol across his upper back on the inside. The coat is even fully reversible, so he can wear it the other way around if he wishes. Not that he will do so _here_ , but it remains an option available to him. She's even forgone the standard Uchiha high collar so he can attach his fur to the coat's neckline instead.

Tobirama is unsure of the appropriate protocol for thanking the wife of the clan head holding him hostage for personally making a useful item of clothing for him. He feels vaguely indebted, as though he should offer her something in recognition of her time and consideration. He also doesn't know enough about coats or her other duties to be able to accurately gauge what would make a suitably equal exchange, so he should get a second opinion first. Possibly even a third opinion; accidentally offending her would be most counterproductive.

Having a coat however leads to a drastic change in routine: at breakfast he is besieged by Madara's twin daughters insisting on showing him the garden, which somehow results in being given a bento large enough for himself, both of them and eleven-year-old Benten as well.

"Remember, Tobirama-san is our guest, so don't run off and leave him alone," Kita says firmly to Toshiko and Azami as he attempts to make eye-contact with Madara and find out what on earth the man is trying to do here. Madara studiously avoids looking up from his tea; clearly Tobirama will have to work matters out for himself. "Benten will join you for lunch after her naginata lesson and take over showing him around while you have your naps."

"Yes kaka," both little girls chorus seriously before grabbing Tobirama's free hand and coat hem and trying to drag him to the genkan.

Tobirama lets them. He is fond of children and has a nephew the same age as Madara and Kita's little girls –speaking of Tsunama, he hopes somebody explains his absence to the boy in positive terms– so he doesn't mind indulging them. That they want to show him around the garden and possibly other parts of the Uchiha compound as well will be a pleasant change of pace from sitting indoors and reading variously flawed philosophy texts. He wonders who those were purchased by; one of them was so irritating he spent half a day writing a rebuttal of each and every point. His letter home he kept short; he did briefly try to write one with references to who should be charged with which of his duties in his absence, but it is evident that the Uchiha will read any letter before sending it and he does not wish to personally endanger any of his clansmen by informing a still-rival clan of their position in the Senju hierarchy.

Putting on his sandals, he catches each girl by the hand –the bento box handle is thankfully wide enough to rest comfortably across his palm and leave a few fingers free– and lets them lead him out into the garden.

An hour later Tobirama has been solemnly introduced to every tree, flower and shrub in the garden in no particular order, finishing up beside the koi pond. Toshiko briefly dashes around to the kitchen door for a bowl of food for the fish, so she can feed them as Azami points out individual koi to him by name:

"That's Kōhaku-san and Kōhaku-chan and that's Kōhiku-san and that's Tanchō-san and Showa-san and Showamaru-san and Asagi-chan! Over there's Chagoi-chan and Madara-chibi and Gin-san and Ōgon-chan and Ochiba-chan! Oh, and Bekko-san hiding over there as well!"

The names are easily remembered; they're all according to their colouring. "They're very beautiful," Tobirama says warmly. He's aware of a few nearby Uchiha watching from beyond the low garden wall; he'd be more concerned if they _weren't_ watching, considering he is from a rival clan and within arm's reach of their Head's children.

"Do you have a koi pond, Bira-oji?"

"Not personally, but my sister has a koi pond." There had been no koi in the pond for a decade until Mito took charge of the gardens of the clan house, due to the depredations of local wildlife. Mito had solved the problem with seals; he wonders if that is how the Uchiha also ensure that foxes, cranes, tigers and boars leave their fish alone.

Nobody has interrupted them yet, which has interesting implications. He knows the seal on his back blocks him from accessing his chakra and there is clearly something to prevent him from leaving the Uchiha compound, but there could easily be additional clauses for other things. Not that Tobirama is inclined to push boundaries to find out for himself what they are; the trust shown in Kita's sealing is however rather telling. It says that the clan as a whole is familiar with her work and its efficacy, so trust it even without seeing a specific seal in action for themselves.

"Are her koi pretty colours?"

"Very pretty, but I don't think she has one like Asagi-chan."

Tobirama isn't sure his clan would trust his work to that extent. Then again, most of his seals are intended for his own use on the battlefield, while Kita seemed to have gone in the opposite direction and pioneered seals for use in more domestic and universal contexts. Her embroidered seals are certainly unlike anything he's ever seen before; not even the Uzumaki work in such a way. Mito _has_ mentioned some of the more obscure Uzumaki sealing styles on occasion, but even if they have work that goes into clothing, it is still written rather than stitched.

"Now you've seen the garden, we can show you outside!" Toshiko says brightly.

"Shouldn't you take the bowl back to the house first?" Tobirama suggests.

Azami bounces to her feet again as Toshiko quickly carries the bowl back to the engawa. "Come see _everything_ , Bira-oji!"

Tobirama catches her hand and allows himself be led out of the garden gate, letting Toshiko claim his other hand once she catches up. "Lead on then, Azami-chan."

He's not sure who or where the watcher Madara promised is, but several Uchiha have eyes on him right now and there are many more popping in and out of sight around him –he's determined now that the masking seals are on the compound's buildings, so he cannot sense anybody indoors or even sitting on an engawa– so he is sure they are there. He can't sense any overt hostility in the chakra he _can_ feel, but that's not as clear an indicator as it might be.

"That's Hikaku-oji and Yori-oba's house! Yori-oba's having a baby! An' that's Baasan's house!" Both houses are very fine, so their owners will be high-ranking within the Uchiha clan. "That's Usu-chan's house an' that's Ikeda-kun's house an' that's Kagutsuchi-nii's house!" Not every house got pointed at, so Tobirama assumes that the inhabitants are not interesting to toddlers, or possibly just not familiar.

The houses are all much in the traditional samurai style, although past the central curve around the Uchiha clan hall those buildings give way to wide, single-storey farmhouses, storehouses and town-style two-storey buildings with workshop space underneath and sleeping space above, small clumps of buildings surrounded by vegetable gardens and the occasional orchard or field. The further he is dragged away from the clan hall –and westwards, towards the side of the compound furthest from the Senju– the more widely spaced the farmhouses and storehouses are and the more open space between the fields.

"An' that's where Sue-chan lives and that's E-nee's house–"

There are also far more children. Tobirama is honestly surprised; he'd not realised the Uchiha clan was quite so large. There are a few barns which are no more than a roof held up by pillars over a wooden floor and one of them is in use as a teaching space: a teenager with a false foot is leading a group of fifteen children barely out of toddlerhood through a stretching routine, complete with a nonsense song to go with the movements as they touch the floor between their feet, raise their hands above their head, lean to one side and the other and then bend over backwards, tiny chakra signatures bright and steady.

"–an' over there's where Baachan works most days with Shirushi-oba!"

The field adjacent to the impromptu dojo is full of mulberry trees, variously-aged women and a few teenage girls filling baskets with the leaves and carrying them into a nearby storehouse; Tobirama assumes –in part by the underlying susurrus audible even past the childish chorus– that they are keeping the Uchiha clan's silkworms fed. There are even a few older women reeling silk under the shelter of the storehouse's wide roof.

He's not seen many men; are they all away on missions? He knows Madara has been busy arranging a lot of those in light of the current ceasefire and he expects the Senju will be doing likewise, even though approving those is usually his responsibility.

There are more children –mostly older boys– running around under the trees between the fields, and in an orchard off to one side he can see a few pre-teen girls corralling infants and toddlers in the short spring grass; keeping them out from underfoot so their parents can work, no doubt.

Still, the sheer _lack_ of adults is a little disconcerting. The people weeding the field to his right are both teenage boys, the short figure tipping a bucket over a fence to the sound of porcine squealing is wearing a kimono so is probably a young girl and the only adult male he _can_ see is standing in a barren field with eight teenagers facing him in two staggered rows, their coats, leg-wraps and stances making it clear they are undergoing some kind of combat training. Possibly using genjutsu? It wouldn't be much good for building muscle memory, but illusions could be repurposed very effectively to demonstrate battle formations and impart other necessary information. Teaching a person to set traps in a genjutsu would work, for instance, and have the advantage that they can practice without using up materials or actually harming themselves or anybody else.

Tobirama will have to mention that to Tōka later. She's never been much for teaching, but she's the best in the clan at genjutsu and a lot of people do learn better by seeing and doing, which is not always practical to arrange in real life. Especially with wire; every Senju trap specialist _adores_ Uchiha wire and will no more part with it than a dragon will relinquish their pearl.

Azami and Toshiko eventually lead him down a side-path along a field boundary, towards the smell of iron and smoke and the sound of hammering. Tobirama is really _not_ convinced he's going to be welcomed into the Uchiha's forge district –which is clearly where they're headed– but it's not like he can tell them that. Or that saying so would necessarily dissuade them.

Sure enough, an Uchiha steps into the path ahead. "Who's this then?"

"Yae-oji!" the twins cheer, letting go of Tobirama's hands to rush the man and hug his legs.

"Ah, it's mischief and mayhem!" The leanly muscled man says warmly, bending over so he can ruffle their hair with scarred hands. "How are you both today?"

"We're showing Bira-oji _everything_ , Yae-oji!" Azami says eagerly, grabbing his hand.

" _Everything_ , hm?" Uchiha Yae asks, eyeing Tobirama sharply over the girls' heads. "Well, has he seen the pottery kilns yet?"

"No, Yae-oji, we came here first!"

"Bira-oji needs to meet Tekari-nii and Jōnen-nii!"

"Well both your niisans are _very_ busy right now, but I know for a fact your otōsama is helping with the kilns today, so why don't you go and watch? I'm sure Tobirama-san will be interested."

An expert deflection; both girls twist around to look at Tobirama's face. "I didn't know your otōsama was interested in pottery," he says, perfectly willing to go along with the suggestion. Avoiding the Uchiha's smiths will keep tensions down, which will in turn help to keep his stay as uneventful as possible. "Would you show me?"

Both girls let go of Yae in order to charge back at him. "We'll show you!" Toshiko says eagerly.

"We're gonna see toto breathe fire! It's gonna be so awesome!" Azami agrees. Tobirama is promptly turned around and dragged along a different path leading back east, parallel to the one they were on earlier, both girls talking over each-other in their eagerness to tell him about their father's 'super-amazing' fire-breathing skills.

Fire ninjutsu for a kiln though? Won't that shatter the pots? Now he really _is_ curious.

* * *

Madara has come to really enjoy pottery. Not the actual clay-handling part –he is, personally and objectively, genuinely _terrible_ at that bit for all that it invokes gleeful childish feelings over getting to play with mud without getting into trouble– but dipping the pots in the glazes and the careful setting up of pots in the kiln, making sure everything is properly spaced and wrapping specific items in straw so the ash will colour the glaze during firing. There's a _right way_ to do it, for all that it changes a little each time depending on what's going in and what the desired results are, and it's always a fun challenge.

He also enjoys firing the kiln, because a few years of meticulous experimentation have yielded results and the clan now has proper fire techniques for heating up the kilns without using any fuel at all: the specially modified jutsu, together with a temperature-measuring seal and Kita's bento-box keep-hot seal, lets them get it up to temperature, seal it up and have it stay exactly as hot as it needs to for as long as is necessary and then gradually cool down by opening vents. The raku-style stoneware only needs a few hours, but there's Uchiha porcelain as well now and that can take almost two weeks to fire properly, which requires a different technique and a differently-designed kiln as well since it has to get up to heat more slowly, while also getting much hotter.

He still flies his hawks –for all that his favourite lady is getting rather old now and his newer bird is something of a lazy layabout in comparison– but the kiln is a different sort of hobby, requiring careful thought and strategy and a surprising amount of chemistry know-how. Most of the pottery is fired with iron glazes, made by grinding down the leftover iron from smelting steel for blades, and different concentrations in the clay and the glaze –as well as different firing times and methods– result in different colours. From the delicate duck-egg blue and celadon green porcelain to the orange, brown, black and occasionally deep blue raku stoneware, there is a market for all of them and the tiny fan-shaped stamp on the underside of every item fills Madara with a deep sense of clan pride.

He is not the only person with the reserves necessary to fire the kilns, but he enjoys participating when he can and since he's taken advantage of the cease-fire to send a lot of the Outguard on missions, there aren't many other people with deep enough reserves _in_ the compound right now. Well, not that don't have more important things to do with their chakra. Also, the ceasefire means the potters have decided to fire early, so as to have ceramics ready to sell for next week and possibly fit a second firing in two weeks time.

Peace is profitable. It is also restful, productive and enjoyable. He's abandoned his desk for a few hours to join in with loading the kiln and doesn't mind at all that he'll need to carefully brush dirt off his kimono afterwards.

The kiln is halfway loaded when his two little girls arrive on the scene, dragging Tobirama between them. "Toto!"

There are warm chuckles from the clansmen around him as he quickly extricates himself from the loading zone so the two three-and-three-quarter-year-olds won't trip anybody up dashing in for hugs. Madara scoops Azami off her feet, tossing her in the air –she squeals happily– before settling her on his shoulders so he can greet Toshi as well.

Tobirama hangs back, selecting a tree to loiter under as Madara is pelted with a happily haphazard account of their morning.

"–Yae-oji said you were firing the kiln and Bira-oji said he wanted to see an' so we're watching!"

"So you are," Madara agrees lightly; Kita's cousin Yae has done right keeping Tobirama away from the forges. Not that he doesn't trust his clansmen, but those Uchiha with the reserves for blade- and wire-smithing tend to have relatives in the Outguard and the Outguard is currently both depleted and largely made up of the relatively young; if he hadn't raised the entry age to sixteen he'd have twenty-five fourteen- and fifteen-year-olds making up a sixth of his forces. There are maybe twenty warriors over the age of thirty left; his father died at forty-two and there were fifteen men within a few years of his age in the Outguard when he did.

He'd really _much_ rather have a smaller Outguard for the time being than have the deaths of the clan's precious children etched into his brain forever by his sharingan. It's bad enough losing the seventeen-year-olds.

Well if they get peace he won't have any more teenagers dying in his arms; with this cheering thought in mind Madara approaches Tobirama, who is watching the kiln being loaded with increasing levels of interest. He's clearly trying to put together what he's seeing with any pre-existing knowledge of pottery to work out what the Uchiha present are doing.

"Are those porcelain water jars and tea jars?" He asks once Madara is in earshot, nodding at the items being carefully placed in saggars –plain ceramic boxes– so that they fire evenly and are not affected by debris in the wider kiln.

Madara glances over. "Yes, and plum-blossom vases, incense boxes, incense burners, sake cups, rice bowls and serving dishes. All being well, they should come out with a bluish celadon glaze." If the iron content's higher than anticipated the glaze will be more olivine, but they will still be able to sell everything; just at slightly lower prices. The delicate aqua shade is simply the most highly prized at the daimyo's court at the moment and Kita has plans to 'gift' an incense box to the Minister of Ceramics. It will be less of a gift and more of an advertising ploy, so that he will show it off to fellow ministers and courtiers and thereby increase the demand for Uchiha porcelain.

Their stoneware is doing very well, but now the potters have worked out how to get the celadon glazes reasonably consistent and the clay formula just right to not shatter half of their work in each firing, it's time to advertise those achievements outside the clan and expand the market for Uchiha ceramics.

"And you fire them with ninjutsu?" Tobirama's expression right now is so intensely reminiscent of the many nin-neko that live around the compound –specifically the expression associated with eagerly swaying tails and pounceable cat toys– that Madara has to suppress a toothy smirk.

"Feel free to watch." Madara's good enough now to not need handseals and Tobirama's water-natured anyway, so it's not like he can copy the technique. Besides, the all-important temperature regulation aspect requires direct calibration rather than being part of the technique itself –for porcelain the kiln temperature has to be raised gradually over several hours– so it's not like he'll be able to copy it. Otherwise the technique is just an unusually hot firewhirl that is possibly more dangerous to the user than any enemy it might be aimed at; it's only safe because the kiln door gets closed on it as soon as the appropriate temperature is reached, at which point it extinguishes itself due to lack of air.

It does generally try to _leave_ the kiln at that point though; the door-keeper needs shinobi reflexes.

Thus encouraged, Tobirama cautiously drifts closer; Madara heeds Azami's incautious wriggling and sets her back on her own feet before she can tumble off his shoulders.

"Come on, Bira-oji!" she chirps, grabbing the Senju's free hand, "Let's go see!"

"Not going, Toshi-chan?" Madara asks quietly as Tobirama lets himself be chivvied by a toddler.

"Stayin' with toto," the taller of his little girls mumbles, wrapping her arms around his neck. Kissing her forehead, Madara settles her properly on his hip than heads back over to the kiln, so as to be available to consult over everything being suitably distributed to allow for air flow and the inevitable temperature gradient.

His father would probably be terribly disapproving if he were here, scolding Madara for soiling his hands with a craft when he's the Head of the Uchiha's most prestigious lineage and the commander of the Outguard, but quite honestly Madara would sooner spend the rest of his life trying to work out how to shape mud into pots if it meant never seeing another battlefield.

Fighting is exhilarating and there is little as wonderful as matching wits against a strong opponent and testing himself with new techniques, but sparring is not much less fulfilling than a true fight and he is deathly tired of dreaming of the broken bodies of his kinsmen gasping their last in his arms.

The clan has two new Mangekyō users, not that anybody outside the Outguard knows it. Those with them have sworn the rest to secrecy, not wanting to deal with the political quagmire that would doubtless ensue. Madara is letting it rest for the time being; if it looks like they will get peace he will persuade them to make things official so that the new manifestations can be documented and they can have their own patchwork coats. Not that _he_ was sworn to secrecy, of course; he doesn't need to be told to notice the difference in his subordinates.

They're both orphans lacking a recognised lineage and only Sahoro has living relatives –he's part of the family line that makes the clan's armour– so it's not like acknowledging them will make much of a difference beyond upsetting the clan's few remaining elders.

* * *

The most frustrating thing about watching the Uchiha clansmen load the kiln under Madara's expert eye is that Tobirama knows he doesn't know enough about pottery to be able to _understand_ what he's seeing. He knows that pottery has to be fired to become water resistant, he knows that different types are fired at different temperatures and that certain glazes can come out dramatically differently in a single batch despite all going in the kiln together and that some batches just break, but it's not something he's studied. It never interested him.

Yet here he is, _itching_ with curiosity because Madara clearly _has_ studied it, as have several other Uchiha, and between them they've pinned down enough of the variables to garner predictable results. There are _seals_ on that kiln, seals to ensure predictability and repeatability, and Tobirama is sure he's about to witness a leap forwards in ceramic chemistry and technology yet he _doesn't know enough_ to be able to recognise what's going on or how it works.

All he sees is that Madara insists on examining the inside of the kiln and has the potters –both entirely civilian and possibly not even Uchiha by their faces, although the five variously-aged apprentices all have respectable chakra reserves and the clan look– rearrange certain sections for reasons he cannot fathom –Tobirama _hates_ not knowing things– then a small amount of charcoal is taken inside, everybody steps well back and the Uchiha Clan Head sets Toshiko down and gently shoos her off to the side. Then Madara settles into a terribly familiar stance in the entrance –one Tobirama has seen countless times on the battlefield– his chakra spikes and he breathes a stream of _bluish_ fire into the kiln.

Tobirama knows that the colour of a flame changes according both to what is being burned and its temperature. Blue fire is _exceptionally_ hot. Madara has also clearly mastered a circular breathing technique, because the flame _keeps going_. For _much_ longer than he's ever seen the man do in a fight.

The oldest apprentice is standing behind the door, entire body tense and poised, while one of the potters is around the corner of the kiln consulting one of the seals, on which two separate red lines are rising; one red line stabilises, but the other continues to climb ever higher. Madara is perfectly calm, blue fire streaming from his mouth into the kiln–

"Cut!"

The door slams shut as Madara leaps backwards in a blur of speed; even so, there is an instant when the almost-closed kiln door is haloed in flame. There is a seal on the back of the door –well, across the door and the frame actually– which flares slightly as the door closes, so presumably that's the locking mechanism.

"That'll do for now, Madara-sama," one of the potters says cheerfully, slapping his Clan Head's shoulder with a hand covered in dried mud; not that Madara seems to care, despite being dressed in a black and white lattice-print silk kimono rather than indigo cotton Uchiha work-wear. "The seals are fully charged, so we can take it from here."

"Let me know when it's time to unpack, so I can see the results for myself," Madara replies warmly, reaching down to ruffle Toshiko's hair as she trots back to his side.

"Of course, Madara-sama! We're thinking of firing up the stoneware kiln in five days' time; probably six firings over the course of the day, so if you want to come down and join in do feel free," the other potter says with a grin. "Show the kids how it's done."

"Provided I am not needed elsewhere, sensei," Madara agrees, nodding respectfully at the older man. "Now I will leave you to your work."

"Show's over kids!" the younger potter shouts, waving a hand at the gathered apprentices. "Back to work!" The crowd of muddy loiterers instantly disperses, most of them heading towards another suspended roof –this one over a dirt floor– where there are tables and wheels, wooden racks of drying pots and a very large mound of clay is taking up about a quarter of the space.

"Toto's so awesome!" Azami bubbles, tugging on Tobirama's hand to get his attention. "He's the _best_ at fire techniques! Nobody else can do blue fire!"

"It was very impressive," Tobirama agrees; he suspects that blue fire would result in super-heated steam if it came into contact with water, which would be _acutely_ unpleasant on the battlefield. He's not seen Madara use it before though; possibly it only works at close range, or requires some kind of preparatory step?

Azami beams at him, delighted by his acknowledgement, then drags him over to the edge of the paved area where Madara has retreated to talk to an armored Uchiha with a sharingan eye tattooed on his forehead. Tobirama isn't sure what underpins the Uchiha fascination with tattoos –at least a third of their warriors have them, which admittedly makes identifying them easier– and isn't sure how to ask. Something to do with their religious practices, maybe? He's seen tattooed monks before.

The man stops talking as Tobirama walks into earshot, eyeing him warily. Tobirama was honestly expecting more hostility from the clan in general, but all the Uchiha he's seen so far have either ignored him entirely or kept their distance, as though he is a feral dog they don't want to provoke into biting them. Well, not including the younger children to whom he is simply a new and interesting adult, or Madara and his wife, who are treating him somewhere between a familiar guest and a family pet. Possibly most like a cat, to be shut out of certain rooms but otherwise fed and allowed the freedom of his surroundings.

It is perhaps somewhat irritating that having his chakra bound and being treated like a cat is significantly _better_ that he was expecting. Better than being locked in a cell or discreetly executed once they were back on Uchiha lands, certainly.

"Hi! I'm Azami! What's your name?"

The tattooed warrior with the goatee bead bows to the toddler with a smile. "I am Nagi of the Konjin lineage, Azami-chan. A pleasure to meet you." Tobirama has always assumed 'Nagi' to be a woman's name; he wonders what characters are used to spell it in this instance.

Tobirama also wonders what significance a named lineage has; some kind of internal Uchiha ranking system? A way to separate out specific family lines within the wider clan umbrella? Possibly a connection to the seven people who'd flanked Madara for his binding, one of them a small child and therefore not a suitable representative for anything unless there really _is_ nobody else?

"An' this is Bira-oji!" Azami pauses. "Have you met Bira-oji before, Nagi-oji?"

"I have seen him many times before today, but we have not been introduced," Uchiha Nagi says with restrained precision.

"Don't you like Bira-oji?" Toshiko asks curiously.

There is a pause; Nagi glances at his Clan Head, whose expression and chakra are both uncharacteristically bland.

"The Uchiha clan is not on good terms with his clan," Nagi replies, face and chakra now firmly controlled, "and he gave the order to cut off my niece E-san's hands."

Both little girls spin around, aghast. "Bira-san!"

Tobirama feels a pang at the sudden formality. "She was attacking the people I was responsible for at the time," he explains carefully, "and I was afraid she would defeat them."

"E-nee is _awesome_ ," Azami declares, glaring at him over folded arms, "an' she could defeat you _without_ hands!" The resemblance to her father is rather pronounced at this moment.

"I believe you," Tobirama agrees; right now he is no match for a fūinjutsu specialist, hands or no hands. Assuming E is the woman who was standing behind Izuna with the brush between her teeth, she certainly hasn't let losing her hands keep her from advancing her education there.

"Good." Azami nods firmly.

"You're not going to cut off anybody else's hands?" Toshiko asks warily.

"I am your parents' guest; attacking anybody in the Uchiha clan while that remains the case would be very rude of me." Never mind that he cannot access his chakra and doesn't even have a kunai to his name.

"Manners are very important, girls," Madara says, drawing his daughters' attention back to himself. "Tobirama-san is here because I hope that our clans may one day be friends, so there will be no more fighting. So we are all being polite to each-other, even though we have fought in the past."

"Yes toto." Azami hesitates. "Can you eat lunch with us, toto?"

"Where were you planning on eating lunch, flower?"

The girl brightens. "By the river! Benten-nee is meeting us there! She said so!"

"Then I will fetch my bento and also join you by the river," Madara agrees easily; Tobirama can't think of _any_ occasion when his brother has put aside his plans for the day to indulge Tsunama. Or even delayed his plans for a few hours, so as to each lunch with his son at Tsunama's request. And his nephew _has_ asked.

It's an uncomfortable thought, that Madara has in less than a week shown himself to be a more attentive parent than Hashirama has managed over his son's entire lifetime.

"Can I stay with you, toto?" Toshiko asks, taking her thumb out of her mouth.

"Of course you can, bean-sprout; would you like me to carry you?"

Toshiko brightens. "Can you run?"

"In my kimono?" Madara pulls a dramatically shocked face then smiles warmly at his daughter. "Fine, just for you then." He scoops up Toshiko and vanishes in a blur.

Azami pouts. "Can you do that, Bira-oji?"

"Not right now; I'm a guest." She thankfully accepts the deflection and sprints over to grab his hand.

"I'll show you the river, Bira-oji!"

Tobirama allows himself to be dragged off again, aware of Nagi-san's eyes drilling into the back of his head until they are out of sight. So there _are_ Uchiha who are angry about him being here, who have personal grudges as well as a more general hatred for his clan. However they so far seem to be keeping that to themselves, mindful of their Clan Head's intentions.

He wonders how long that will last.


	11. Chapter 11

Ten blessedly uneventful days into the ceasefire Madara receives a crow-delivered letter from his brother in the scrambled Uchiha code only an active sharingan can decipher. After the standard opening greeting there is a short but densely detailed paragraph describing his current physical health, referencing the large additional sheet which is very clearly a full copy of the Senju healer's notes on his care –which Madara sets aside for Yori to peruse– and a mention that the healer believes he will be fully recovered and able to train properly again in a week's time.

The rest of the letter is largely a long and occasionally vituperative litany of complaints, which Madara reads in the spirit it was no doubt intended: to reassure him that Izuna is indeed going to be fine and also enable his brother to blow off steam without endangering himself. Many of the complaints are deeply petty, but Madara reads each character attentively, greedily scrutinising every brushstroke for insight into his little brother's mood and the assurance that he is truly as well as the healer claims. The complaining certainly suggests Izuna has his strength back.

The food is bland. There's no fish or pork, only duck or chicken. The beds are strangely designed, uncomfortable to sleep on and can't even be folded up during the day to make more space. He's expected to sit on a chair at a high table for meals, like a tradesman at a roadside ramen stand, rather than on a cushion on the floor like a civilised person. Barely any of the houses have tatami and half of them have been built with mokuton, and no matter _what_ his 'hosts' say, his refusal to sleep somewhere that feels like 'that deceptive sappy oaf' is _not_ paranoia. It makes perfect sense to Madara, but he can see how explaining the subtleties to the Senju would be… complicated, especially since Izuna won't want to show any more weakness than he has already.

Izuna has seen too many Uchiha dying slowly after encounters with Hashirama to have any positive associations with the man's chakra at all; the nightmare-countering omamori reduces nocturnal horrors, but for it to work Izuna still needs to be comfortable enough to fall asleep in the first place. A house redolent with Hashirama's chakra in every plank and beam would _not_ be conducive to that, save in cases of profound exhaustion.

Speaking of Hashirama, Izuna has written almost an entire page of choppy symbols ranting about 'your loud, pushy, wilfully ignorant human kudzu who needs to be set on fire' and how the man keeps _bothering_ him. Madara easily deduces that Hashirama has decided to make friends with Izuna, which translates as Hashirama constantly invading Izuna's personal space to be irrepressibly cheerful at him.

Izuna is perfectly capable of being friendly and outgoing when it suits him, but he hates not having his privacy respected and also hates rudeness. Hashirama is evidently trampling on _all_ his sore spots.

Still, it's better than Izuna being dead.

Following the lengthy and loquaciously vicious rant are a terse and grudging few lines on Mito-san's very proper hospitality –Madara senses that Izuna has been hiding behind that propriety on various occasions– and a full paragraph on the utter ridiculousness of the Senju's way of dressing their children; hakama are restricting and impractical and pairing them with casual sleeveless shirts is just jarring. Evidently Senju children are just as incautiously unprejudiced as Uchiha children.

The letter concludes with a dramatic plea for rescue, a warm greeting to Toshi and Azami and a demand for details of what exactly Tobirama is getting up to in the Uchiha compound without him there to keep an eye on the man. Which could be Izuna being nosy, but Madara suspects that Tobirama's failure to communicate with his clansmen despite having been given permission to do so is raising tensions on the Senju side of things.

Tobirama _has_ written a note, which Hijiri dropped on Senju Tōka's head by way of one of his crows, but it reportedly contained exactly two lines thanking her for arranging the delivery of his casual clothing and assuring her than he is being well-treated. That his Senju hostage evidently considers that more than sufficient is a headache for another day; Madara gets out a long scroll of hemp paper and starts grinding an inkstick as he thinks about how he intends to reply.

His brother will be amused by Tobirama being likened to a huffy nin-neko, the man's patient indulgence of Toshi and Azami is worth mentioning and so is the sudden and intensely focused curiosity on the matter of ceramics, which has formed the bulk of mealtime conversations for the whole past week. Tobirama already knows some chemistry, so Madara has written equations and explained processes and had heard a lot of startlingly interesting speculation that he has made a point of writing down afterwards, so as to investigate some of it at the next experimental glaze session. Guaranteeing colour gradation would require fine-tuning over several sessions, but there are more metals than iron that can be used in glazes; iron is simply plentiful and freely available to them as a smelting by-product. Arranging to purchase small quantities of other ground minerals would not be particularly hard, especially if they do get peace.

He will not mention the coat –that is something Izuna deserves to express his feelings on in person to both himself and Kita– but there is no reason not to share that most of the younger children are calling Tobirama 'Bira-oji' and how encouraging and complimentary the Senju was when Benten showed off her naginata skills in front of him. Madara can describe the hilariously feline expression of thwarted fascination that crosses the man's face every time he notices one of Kita's seals, complete with how he then firmly ignores it thereafter; Tobirama's rather transparently _desperate_ to talk shop on fūinjutsu with somebody who likely comes at it from a completely different angle to him, yet knows he _can't_.

The ink prepared, Madara picks up his brush. He does not write in sharingan code; Hashirama will probably want to read about what his brother is getting up to and Izuna will not want to read the letter over and over for him. He does include a coded post-script at the end for his brother's eyes only, assuring him that everybody is well and that the clan is taking advantage of the ceasefire for trade and to run missions, bringing in money for the Uchiha. Knowing that Madara is making good use of the time won will hopefully enable Izuna to be patient during the second half of his stay with the Senju.

* * *

By his eleventh day as a hostage to the Uchiha clan Tobirama has developed something of a routine. In the morning he accompanies Azami and Toshiko in their ranging around the compound with the other children their age, which generally includes sitting to one side out of the way and watching them join in the basic training hour as led by the teenager with the false foot; speaking of which, how on _earth_ did the Uchiha get one of Wind Country's puppeteers to part with something that complex and well-made? Did they trade steel or wire for it?

After lunch he is handed over to Benten and is expected to stay in her general vicinity while she practices calligraphy, time which he uses to read whichever scroll he's borrowed most recently from Madara's collection, followed by a supervised training session in a training field. In that _he_ is supervised by _her_.

Tobirama is grateful for the opportunity and tacit encouragement to maintain his shinobi skills, even though he must do so entirely without chakra; he has never considered the potential benefits of training without chakra before now, but sweating and panting as he runs through his usual warm-up routine makes it very clear that he will be stronger for it. Perhaps once he is home again he can develop a chakra-binding tag of his own, so as to continue the practice later?

It is during the first of these sessions that he learns that Uchiha do not use kunai. At all: they have swords, knives, wire, various pyrotechnics, shuriken in every conceivable size and even the occasional senbon, but no kunai. Benten didn't even know what one _was_. Tobirama has no idea how he's managed to not notice this before now, as it marks a fairly fundamental difference between the two clans' fighting styles and really, he _should_ have noticed it. How has he managed to go _years_ without seeing this?!

Two days after this revelation a pair of crudely-shaped iron kunai are handed over by Benten for him to train with. They're even the right weight and perfectly balanced, despite having no edge or point to speak of and being brittle enough that they'd shatter if he tried to parry a sword with them. Not that he was expecting to be handed a blade in the first place; the dummy kunai are however evidence that Benten has taken the time to hunt down an Uchiha who _has_ handled kunai before now and persuaded them to collaborate with a smith on his behalf.

He wasn't expecting it. He'd been prepared to continue using the small staves she'd first offered him when he requested a short blade equivalent to practice with. This is Kita and his coat all over again; what is he supposed to _do_ about these gifts? He can't just not reciprocate, that would be unconscionably rude!

Is this part of Madara's plan? To indebt him to the point he cannot honourably oppose the Uchiha any longer? Tobirama is still chewing over the possible implications a few days later, while participating in a dolls' tea party with Azami and Toshiko. Their chosen venue is a small copse of trees in the north of the compound and they have invited their cousin Yasakatone; her two brothers are passing the time by climbing one of the trees.

The crack of a branch breaking overhead launches Tobirama into action: he is on his feet and catching four-year-old Shironushi, who definitely damaged his knee bouncing off that branch on his way down, before it quite hits him that he _must_ have used chakra to move that quickly.

His chakra is _sealed_. He can barely even touch it. Yet he is not shivering and gasping on the edge of exhaustion as he would be if he'd used up the tiny trickle in his reach and dug for more he doesn't have to spare.

The child in his arms bursts into tears, probably from both pain and shock; Tobirama wishes vainly for enough chakra for a diagnostic jutsu, if only because then he could be sure whether Shironushi has only suffered scrapes or if his injuries are more severe.

"Shiro!"

"You're brother is fine, I caught him," Tobirama says firmly, looking up and trying to make eye contact with Minakata through the leaves. "Descend _carefully_ ; I would struggle to catch you if you also fell."

The seven-year-old bounces down the tree with the facility of one who is already unconsciously channelling chakra to his muscles and has the reserves to do so with ease, knocking loose twigs and other debris as he does so. "Shiro-chan, are you okay?" He demands immediately after landing.

The four year old presses his face into Tobirama's coat, small scratched hands clinging to his chest as the boy whimpers.

"He hit his leg on a branch on the way down," Tobirama explains calmly to his wide-eyed audience; hopefully none of the others will start crying out of fear or sympathy. "I need to take him to a healer to have it looked at. I don't believe he's broken anything, but bruises and sprains can be very painful."

"Niisan, you take Bira-oji and Shiro-chan to Yori-oba," Yasakatone says firmly, setting her jaw. "I'll stay with Toshi-chan and Azami-chan."

"This way!" The older boy says, taking off at a run.

Carrying a crying child in his arms as he runs alongside Minakata attracts a _lot_ of negative attention from every adult in his sensing range, but nobody actually attempts to stop him on the way to the wide single-storey building with a varied range of medicinal herbs growing all around it; this has to be the Uchiha's primary medical hall. He hurries up the path, pauses in the genkan to kick off his sandals and walks inside in bare feet; rude perhaps, but urgency will hopefully excuse it.

The facial tattoos and chakra that appear as he enters the building are familiar from the Uchiha battlefield triage team –although he's not seen them outside the compound for a while– but the pregnant stomach bulging against the medical smock gives him a moment's jarring dissonance: Tobirama had honestly believed this Uchiha medic to be _male_.

How many other Uchiha has he misgendered on the battlefield? His stay with the Uchiha has thus far revealed a truly distressing pattern of assumptions. He _knows_ he has seen a range of men with tattoos, as while the Uchiha are mainly clean-shaven, there are a few with beards and extended periods of time spent in the field often leads to certain men starting to look scruffy around the chin and jaw line. Or is it _only_ the men who gain that scruff?

"Yori-oba, Shiro-chan fell out of a tree!"

"I caught him," Tobirama says quickly before Yori-san can assume the worst, "but he hit his right leg on the way down and I think there's something wrong with his knee." Not being able to carry out a diagnostic jutsu is a terrible handicap.

Yori-san pales behind her tattoos at Minakata's frightened words, but gathers herself again before Tobirama finishes speaking and quickly hurries forwards to press faintly glowing hands to her patient's face and bare right shin.

"You have a few scrapes on your hands and bruised fingers, and one of the tendons in your knee is torn," she announces after a short pause, "but you will be just _fine_ after I've patched you up, Shiro-kun. Well done, you've been very brave. Minakata-kun, go find your mother and let her know I'm fixing your brother's knee. Tobirama-san, bring him in here and lay him down on the mat, please."

Tobirama is used to raised examination tables, but manages to lower the sniffling Shironushi onto the very thin futon as directed. Yori-san pulls out the fusuma on either side of the space, enclosing it from the rest of the hall and unfolding a screen across the entrance for privacy.

"Sit in the corner until Minakata gets back," she says shortly, filling a bowl with water and washing her hands at the sink before lowering herself to the floor with the bowl and a wash cloth and turning her attention to her patient's hands.

Tobirama obeys. He appreciates not being sent outside, where by now the entire compound will doubtless have heard about the injury and his involvement if not the fine details. Getting murdered over a misunderstanding at this point is something he would much rather avoid; he has only a week left before he is due to be given back to his family.

Yori-san's healing jutsu is nothing at all like the usual Senju one. Yes, it clearly _works_ and no less well –Shironushi's bleeding injuries are washed and closed and Yori-san then turns her attention to his swollen knee– but the chakra feels dramatically different. More like a genjutsu than anything else; even the colour is different. A Yin-focused healing technique perhaps, rather than the more usual Yang one?

Either way, the boy calms quickly in the face of the healer's matter-of-fact care and complete confidence in her skills, even giggling a little when she asks him to wiggle his toes.

"Very good! No more climbing trees until you're better with your chakra, hm? Next time Tobirama-san might not be there to catch you."

She lowers the swelling around the joint and bandages his knee firmly. "This is just until tomorrow morning, Shiro-kun, so it has time to mend properly and doesn't wake you up in the night," she assures him, and the boy is standing up looking none the worse for his experience when the screen is heaved aside and an older woman rushes in.

"Kaachan!" He is immediately swept up in a fierce hug.

"Shiro-chan, what happened?!"

The four-year old bursts into tears again, clinging to his mother with his injured leg dangling. "I was climbing t-trees with Niisan and I f-f-fell!" He manages eventually. "I hit my knee on a branch and it _hurt_ b-but, but Bira-oji caught me and I didn't hit my head! An' he brought me to Yori-oba and she fixed everything!"

Tobirama is briefly impaled by a ferocious scowl, but the accompanying piercing stare is sharingan-free. The glare is honestly bad enough; this woman looks far too much like the late Uchiha Tajima to not be a close relative. A sister perhaps? Even the feel of her chakra is similar, so much so that Tobirama suddenly finds himself wrestling with memories of the few but _extremely memorable_ moments when he found himself facing the former Uchiha Clan Head in battle when he was younger.

He's shaken out of reminiscing by Yori-san heaving him to his feet and dragging him out of the room, which also provides him with an opportunity to take a proper look around the Uchiha Healing Hall. It's… not really at all how he expects a healing hall to look. The floor is stone tile, easily sluiced clean of blood or swept of mud if people run in with their sandals on, there are plain fusuma partitions folded back against the walls at regular intervals so that patients can have their own space, a few bed mats laid out here and there but most of them rolled up and stacked in a far corner. There are cabinets and wooden sinks at regular intervals along the walls, one in each partitioned space, and a few braziers here and there with baskets of charcoal next to them. There are no private offices or laboratories that he can see, no specialised equipment or even a separate room for surgical procedures.

Well, there _could_ be specialised equipment in the cabinets, but Tobirama thinks they'd be better secured if that were the case; none of those drawers or doors are locked, or even _have_ locks. An open shōji in the middle of the long wall reveals a pavilion where a few other people in plain smocks like Yori-san is wearing are drying and processing various herbs, but that's all. He can't even see more than maybe six reference books on the shelves –two of which are identical copies of the same text– and even the anatomy charts on the walls are fairly basic.

Yori-san is watching him look around with her arms folded under her chest.

"My apologies," Tobirama says reflexively; he's being somewhat rude.

She waves a hand dismissively. "It's not like there's anything here you'd care to take home when you leave, Senju."

Ah. Well then, perhaps..? "You have a separate venue for research then?"

Yori-san's mouth twists, pulling unevenly on the obscure script tattooed on her cheekbones. "No, Senju; this is _all_ we have. We only cracked chakra healing a few years back; that's why I am personally in favour of peace, even though I've lost brothers and uncles to the battlefield. I _know_ we're not going to be able to keep up and having to choose between carrying the broken home to die slowly in my care and cutting their throats in the field has really destroyed morale." She huffs. "Your brother's the worst; some of his victims linger for _weeks_ and there's only so much I can do to relieve the pain before they start begging for a knife."

Tobirama feels himself blink as though from a distance, feeling the world rearrange itself around him with new and devastating clarity. Hashirama _hates_ killing people; his squeamishness has always been a source of profound frustration for Tobirama, who regularly wants to strangle his overpowered, excessively optimistic older sibling for refusing to go beyond the occasional crippling injury and usually limiting himself to things that would take a healer a week or so to mend entirely, possibly a month on the outside.

Uchiha are all startlingly similar to Senju eyes, both in terms of chakra and what of their face is visible above those high coat collars. They're not like the Senju, with a range of specialties, body types, colourings and chakra affinities; all Uchiha are tall, dark-haired, fair-skinned and fire-natured, dressed in identical coats, many of them with near-identical fighting styles to the point that in a night-time ambush it can be challenging to tell how _many_ opponents a squad is facing unless a sensor is present to do the counting. Tōka complains about it regularly; it's why opponents are generally identified by tattoos or unusual accessories if possible –high-end armour is a useful reference– rather than by face or chakra. Even Tobirama struggles to differentiate when facing unfamiliar opponents lacking distinguishing features.

But if the Uchiha _don't_ have the medical care that Tobirama assumes as standard –can't reassemble shattered bones or regenerate punctured organs– then…

It's not that they're simply confusing Uchiha. It's that there're always _new_ Uchiha on the battlefield and they're so closely related to the previous Uchiha –or reusing existing armour– that the differences get missed or overlooked.

Hashirama has always bewailed how quick Madara is to kill, how mercilessly he ends the lives of the Senju he stumbles across. But what if the Uchiha Head sees his actions as merciful? How many of Hashirama's victims have died slowly and in agonising pain, begging for their kinsmen to grant them release, of injuries that he –and Tobirama– have always considered to be easily recovered from? Izuna's state at the exchange was not a deliberate ploy but an admission of inability.

The Uchiha clan's adults are not _missing_. They are _dead_. Madara leads a clan of children, widows, cripples and increasingly desperate survivors. He did not offer this peace as entrapment; he did it because his brother was _dying_ and he saw himself as completely lacking in alternatives. Without Izuna to stand against Tobirama on the battlefield the Uchiha's casualties would only rise. There would be more widows, more orphans and fewer adults left to raise the children left behind.

Tobirama is not blind; the children in the Uchiha compound outnumber the adults, and they would do so even if the warriors Madara has sent on missions were present. And that is only the children he can sense; infants are too young and small to have an easily-perceived chakra signature, assuming that they ever leave the buildings covered by those masking seals at all.

He has always hated killing children, _hated_ that one of his father's favourite strategies was targeting the children of his enemies. But the Uchiha clan is running out of warriors, has a very limited number of clansmen older than their late teens, and if the war does not stop they will not have a choice. They do not want to die, so they _will_ start armouring their children for war.

This. _This_ is why Madara negotiated a ceasefire. How he somehow persuaded his vocally anti-Senju brother to allow Senju healers to treat him. This is the final end Madara desperately wishes to prevent.

"Get lost in your own head for a minute there?"

Tobirama starts. Yori-san is watching him attentively, deep brown eyes uncomfortably knowing.

"My apologies, I was distracted," he manages.

"Minakata's here to escort you back to the girls so Yasa-chan can come see that her brother's fine," the healer says dryly, nodding over at the entryway where sure enough, the boy is waiting. "Off you go and do try _not_ to need to come back, would you?"

Tobirama bows distractedly, puts his sandals back on and leaves, letting Minakata drag him back to Azami and Toshiko by the sleeve. He has far _too_ much on his mind right now.

* * *

The ceasefire is going well –very well– and his subordinates are coming back from missions and trading ventures with money and letters, so Madara decides it's a good time to call in his two new Mangekyō wielders and make sure they take the appropriate steps for recognition. The clan doesn't recognise Mangekyō wielders because it believes the associated gifts are something to be desired; they do it because those who have the Mangekyō have lost much, and the clan has a duty of care to those who have suffered so.

Getting Sakurajima and Sahoro to see that is however likely to be challenging.

At least he doesn't have to tell them why they're here; it's very clear from the moment they walk into his office that they know exactly what's going on.

"Have some tea," Madara offers, setting out cups and removing the iron pot from its stand so he can pour for them. Watching Kita at work has taught him that providing hot drinks makes people reluctant to just walk out, and that food can really smooth a difficult conversation. The little basket of senbei garners suspicious glances, but both his subordinates do sit down opposite him and take one.

"Firstly, I have summoned you because I am concerned for your welfare," Madara says calmly, making brief eye contact with each of them in turn. "The Mangekyō leads inevitably to blindness, but the speed with which it does so can be slowed through proper training. Proper training which neither of you has yet received, as you have neither consulted the clan archives to determine whether your eye shows one of the clan's known historic manifestations nor asked for my assistance in verifying the extent of your abilities. I am the clan's most experienced Mangekyō user and the Outguard Head," he continues, taking care to keep his voice as firm and quiet as when he is talking to his little girls. "You are both my subordinates; your welfare and training in this matter is my responsibility twice over."

"Our apologies, Madara-sama?" Sahoro manages faintly.

"In light of your reticence to bring your change in status to the Homeguard Head's attention I have taken it upon myself to borrow the relevant scroll so that you may consult it privately," Madara continues, removing the large and elaborate scroll in question from his umbrella bag and laying it on the tatami beside his desk, "but I _must_ insist that you at least speak to my wife, so that you can be attired as befits your new role, and that Sahoro name an heir from his extended family. Sakurajima, you need not choose an heir." Sakurajima is nineteen, orphaned and has no relatives closer than a second cousin still living. Seventeen-year-old Sahoro at least has two aunts, a grandfather, two younger siblings and a scattering of first cousins; his grandfather Ishihara is in fact the clan's master armourer and Sahoro's brother Koma is apprenticed to him.

"Thank you, Madara-sama," Sakurajima says quietly, her shoulders loosening. Madara suspects she was expecting to be ordered to marry, so as to ensure her Mangekyō lineage continues, but he honestly doesn't care about that. If she decides she wants children then she will have them; if she does not, forcing them on her would do nobody any good at all.

The Mangekyō is not 'the strength of the clan' as certain past Heads and elders have claimed; it is the sorrow of the clan, that they are marked by their grief and doomed to lose even more while protecting what they have left. Having the Mangekyō is a _miserable_ trade for the lives of their kinsmen and loved ones and he has taken care to write several treatises clarifying such, as well as bluntly documenting the inevitable decline into blindness both he and his brother suffered despite their meticulous adherence to the appropriate training practices.

Those past elders and Heads would have known better than to write such drivel had they had the Mangekyō themselves. It most certainly is _not_ a blessing, regardless of the power it grants access to.

"I would name my brother as my heir, Madara-sama," Sahoro says quietly after finishing his senbei. "He will be one of the clan's next master armourers, and I would rather have my lineage associated with our family craft than with the battlefield."

"You would also nominate Ishihara-sensei as your lineage's elder then?" Implying that Sahoro comes by his Mangekyō through his mother rather than his father, as is more usually accepted to be the case. Then again, Hikaku got his from their grandmother so it's not unprecedented.

"Yes." Sahoro nods firmly. "He is already respected and listened to, so it will not be so great a change."

Madara privately agrees; Ishihara-san is the oldest man in the Uchiha clan at this point and already an elder; making him a lineage elder rather than a representative of those without lineages will mostly upset those people he no longer represents, but there are others who can –and will– take his place. The clan's armourers having a lineage will also elevate the other crafting families by association, proving that they are no less Uchiha for avoiding the battlefield.

A change perhaps, but one that will hopefully be for the better. Still, this will mean having _ten_ clan lineages and correspondingly more elders at meetings; Madara is not looking forward to that part.

"Please examine the scroll at your leisure," he says, setting his cup aside and reaching for his brush. "Should you have questions, please do not hesitate to ask; I cannot help you if I do not know what it is you need."

The two finish their tea and move over towards the shōji, where they carefully unroll the elderly scroll and bend over it together. Madara has already consulted the records with what he knows of the two of them and he has certain suspicions, but he won't _know_ unless they tell him. Neither one has yet used their Mangekyō where he could see them do so.

He has plenty to do in the meantime, such as write the formal documents making Koma Sahoro's heir and recognising Sakurajima as an adult in the eyes on the clan. He generally doesn't foist early adulthood on his orphaned warriors –if they are adults he cannot protect, arm and represent them as a parent would– but in her case it will give her the required authority and independence to turn down marriage offers and means she can draw a stipend from clan funds without needing it signed off by another adult. All lineage heads are entitled to a clan stipend; it is not particularly generous, but it is certainly enough for a single individual to keep a house in good order, arrange meals and be equipped as befits their position. Sakurajima may even decide to take in a fellow orphan to keep her new property in good condition.

Madara really doesn't care if she decides to house six fellow orphans in her house; it will be _her_ house and she can do as she pleases with it. He's not sure she'll want a koi pond dug, but as a lineage head she _is_ allowed one. At least he's not short of empty houses and technically-unclaimed land to assign to her –and to Sahoro as well– to be inhabited and renovated as desired. It's just another aspect of how costly the war has been that there are so many unclaimed properties available for him to choose between.

He also has plenty of other correspondence to see to; the celadons have come out beautifully, so he has a letter to write to the Minister of Ceramics and Kita is writing another letter to the daimyo's wife to accompany the incense burner she is gifting to the woman. Madara's not worried about unfortunate consequences there this time; Kita will mention that it is a new clan product and probably that she is almost out of pretty washi as well, so Murasaki-sama will know that the gift is a show-off piece and be able to reciprocate accordingly.

"Madara-sama?"

He looks up, setting his brush aside; both his subordinates seem to have settled. "Yes?"

"Both our Mangekyō are recorded in the clan's histories," Sakurajima says steadily, "so there will be guidance available in the locked scrolls. I am of the Futsunushi lineage."

"And I am a Mizuhame," Sahoro adds. Madara had suspected Futsunushi for Sakurajima –creating swords out of whatever material is to hand is fairly distinctive– but Mizuhame is a surprise. Or maybe not; his family _are_ armourers after all and have been for longer than the clan has records for, protecting the Outguard with their work. The locked scrolls are coded to the Mangekyō rather than to just the sharingan generally, and traditionally only a person who claims a specific lineage may look at the relevant scrolls.

Practically speaking, both Homeguard and Outguard Heads have access to all of them; Madara hasn't read them all, but he _has_ read the ones concerning the Mangekyō currently represented within the clan. So that he knows what he has to work with and the dangers therein. The most common warning is of the encroaching blindness; further reading and referencing of other clan documents suggest that Uchiha who manifest the Mangekyō either die on the battlefield, take their own lives as the blindness encroaches or start attacking close relatives, which Madara had _assumed_ was madness until he saw for himself the final line written on the stone in the clan's shrine, coded so that only a Mangekyō user can read it.

_The eye taken from thy brother is eternal._

Without careful training, blindness starts setting in within the first two years of activation and is complete by year eight; proper training defers the onset and reduces the severity of the decline, but as most Mangekyō users are nonetheless dead within about seven years of awakening it, it's entirely possible late-onset decline has never been properly documented before. Madara and his brother are both exceptional for having managed to outlast that limit. Even Taka only just managed to make it to her seventh year; he really hopes Hikaku and Oshiki will live longer.

"I will arrange the paperwork," he tells them, "and write you the appropriate permissions to remove lineage scrolls from the clan archives for memorisation. My wife will be pleased to see you now." He's already talked to Kita and she has been eagerly getting out _all_ the scrolls of speculative designs, the ones made for the lost lineages in the hope of their return. This really is a once-in-a-century opportunity and his wife means to make the most of it.

"Of course, Madara-sama." At least now they seem more accepting than afraid.

* * *

Kita hums happily, sitting on the edge of the engawa looking towards the koi pond and stitching together the silk pieces for the coat lining pattern of Futsunushi defeating Amatsu-Mikaboshi. Naka is sewing the Mizuhame coat lining, of the goddess's birth in Izanami's death-throes, because this way neither of the new lineage heads has to wait.

She feels for both of them. Sakurajima, orphaned and isolated by her grief but suddenly thrust into power and authority by that selfsame grief and feeling deeply conflicted about the new connections it has created, and Sahoro, trying to provide for his little sister by joining the Outguard and getting far more than he bargained for in the process.

Hopefully they will take her invitation to visit whenever seriously; there's not really much to do in a lineage with only one member –poor Kagutsuchi is essentially at the bottom of the lineage hierarchy at the moment, despite being technically higher-placed than that– and Sahoro will have his grandfather helping him with the political side, but she would like for them to feel they can talk to her and share their concerns with Madara as well, so that he can help them. Internal clan politics are a Homeguard matter, but as Outguard Head Madara can still advise them and she knows a lot about the Homeguard from Ohabari-oba teaching her, so she would be able to offer insight as well.

"Kita-san."

She glances up from her work. "Good morning, Tobirama-san. Not going out with the girls today?" She did already know that –Toshi came to complain to her– but three-year-olds are easily distracted and a mention of Hijiri being back from a mission sent both of them dashing out of the house to spend time with their 'Jiri-oji.'

"Not today, Kita-san." Tobirama hesitates, settling down on the engawa just far enough away to be polite. "I have a few questions, provided of course you wish to answer them."

"You may ask." Clan secrets are clan secrets after all, but not everything relating to how the Uchiha do things is secret. Some of it is just traditional.

"Among the Senju, not everybody is trained to use elemental chakra," her guest begins quietly; "they must first show an affinity for it and sufficient reserves to make good use of the training. Yet among the Uchiha it seems everybody older than six is actively trained to wield fire." He pauses. "Does your clan train _everybody_ , Kita-san? I do not see why an eight-year-old who is learning to weave has any need for elemental manipulation."

Cultural dissonance is indeed one of the issues their guest is wrestling with; he's probably tripped over several things the Uchiha do differently to the Senju by now, especially since Yori has informed her of the details of his visit to their fledgling healing hall. "Tobirama-san, do you remember when I invited you to tea in the capital and I lit the brazier with a minor elemental technique?"

He inclines his head, gaze intent.

"Every Uchiha girl is taught that trick as soon as their parents deem them responsible enough to help with the cooking," she explains gently. "We are Uchiha; it is expected that we _all_ wield fire. It is a very small technique, barely using a single spark of chakra, and for most of us it is the first external chakra manipulation we learn. My father's side of the family is heavily involved in the clan's charcoal burning and steel smelting; charcoal burning takes much skill to prepare and little chakra to ignite, so I participated from a young age and later used those same skills to make my own ink for sealing, but steel smelting takes considerably deeper reserves and a much finer grasp of elemental manipulation."

"The Uchiha smelt steel with fire chakra?"

Kita nods. "I'm not sure why you are so surprised, Tobirama-san; it is very practical and means burning less charcoal, as well as producing a greater quantity of jewel steel per volume of iron sand. The Uchiha clan could not make so much steel wire otherwise; there are many secret clan techniques refined over many generations that were specifically created for use in the forge." She pauses. "Some of the deepest chakra reserves belong to the clan's smiths, because they are using fire techniques almost every day and have done so since their early teens." She actually knows quite a few of the wire-related techniques from helping her father in the forge as a child, but she's not used any of them recently so she's probably well out of practice. She was also very much a late bloomer in terms of chakra reserves, unlike many of her cousins who hit their peak in their early teens and didn't really grow much beyond that.

Admittedly a good number of her cousins never got the chance.

Tobirama looks slightly dazed. "Smiths who are technically civilian clan members, regardless of the depth and refinement of their chakra reserves," he says faintly, "because they were never trained with combat in mind."

Kita nods. "Many clansmen also spent time learning the subtleties of fire manipulation for the joy and artistry of it; there used to be exhibitions at festivals. Those clansmen who were involved in trade most often indulged, as it was something to do over a fire on the road and a fun way to impress a potential out-clan lover. Being able to make a finch out of fire that behaves exactly like a real bird is useless on the battlefield, but is amusing and apparently very effective for winning over the father of a desired spouse."

Tobirama's face has gone utterly blank, his body language impassive, but she can feel his chakra roiling in her gut like a whirlpool, dark and wild and stricken. "Thank you for relieving me of my misconceptions," he murmurs, bowing low and then getting to his feet and walking sedately around the side of the house towards his room.

Kita picks up another silk shape to add to her pattern and hopes he doesn't blame himself too much. War is a terrible thing and it makes a mockery of everybody's best intentions. Tobirama can only judge his surroundings based on the information available to him, both from his experiences in his own clan and his sensory skills. His decisions were built on what he 'knew,' but they have cost the Senju and Uchiha in various ways because his knowledge was incomplete.

War does not end when the fighting does; people carry it with them and inflict it on their children.

* * *

Tobirama barely leaves his room for two days straight; Kita-san very generously indulges him by leaving trays outside the shōji for him at mealtimes.

He does not know what he will say to his brother. What _can_ he say? That Hashirama's attempts at mercy have caused the Uchiha infinitely more pain, grief and fury than if he had found the conviction to kill his opponents instantly? That Tobirama's own attempts to please both his brother and his father by drawing the never-ending battle away from the Uchiha compound and towards those of the Uchiha trained enough to carry out missions backfired _spectacularly_ and means the Senju slaughtered civilians instead of facing off against trained warriors?

His father would not have cared. Uchiha were all Uchiha to him, and one less Uchiha was one less enemy. But Tobirama can now see how his change in tactics led to Madara and Izuna being so much more vicious on the battlefield, made them both escalate violently and caused the Uchiha's other warriors to be so much more cruel to any Senju they caught alone.

Tobirama suspects this is also why the last ceasefire was broken. Madara probably didn't even order it; a group of Uchiha simply came across a Senju squad by chance and decided to take vengeance for loved ones lost.

He doesn't _want_ to think about how many children he has orphaned, but his brain won't leave him alone about it. The teenagers on the battlefield who were new and unfamiliar two years ago after Hashirama took over leadership, the many, many children doing stretches every morning with only one crippled young man to watch over them and the pre-teens doing chores around the compound, weeding and sweeping and babysitting and tending to livestock and washing clothes. Children put to work because the work _must_ be done and there are no adults to do it.

Madara shows incredible commitment to the possibility of peace between their clans just by allowing Tobirama into his _house_. If their positions were reversed Tobirama is not sure he would be able to stomach sitting across from such a person at mealtimes.

On the second day of his seclusion Tobirama wastes six sheets of paper trying to pen a letter to Tōka before giving up entirely and instead writes an entire scroll full of scathing critique of his own ignorant assumptions and how they have worsened the conflict between their clans rather than mitigating it. He then writes another scroll of how shallow and insincere his brother's repeated pleas for peace appear from the Uchiha perspective, touching on all the ways the Uchiha use their chakra outside of combat to better their clan through non-mercenary means and respect those who specialise in such ways, in contrast to the Senju who are entirely focused on the arts of war and rank their members according to military prowess.

He feels better for it afterwards. Of course, he's never been any good at letting things lie, so after eating dinner and resting for a few hours he takes up his brush again and starts trying to come up with ways the Senju could use their elemental affinities and techniques for peaceful purposes.

It's much harder than any of the jutsu creation he's ever attempted before; Tobirama realises in dismay that he knows next to nothing about anything not pertaining to war. War is all he knows; war is all his _brother_ knows, no matter his eloquence on the necessity of ending it. How can the Senju flourish without war if they don't know _how_?

He very carefully and deliberately sets his borrowed brush down on the rest and cleans up the ink, then goes to bed. This is evidently going to require _research_ , so being well-rested is a good first step. Falling asleep however is not so easy; his thoughts take some time to settle, although his dreams are at least quiet.

A good second step, he decides the following morning, is to find out if anybody else has ever given much thought to the subject and if so, what ideas they may have.

"Kita-san, if you could manipulate water with chakra what would you use it for?"

"Laundry," his hostess says instantly, the woman she introduced a few days ago as 'my sister Naka' snorting and nodding in agreement over her breakfast.

"Laundry?" Tobirama repeats, suddenly conscious that he has never done laundry in his life. Is it really so difficult? Or so tiring?

"It would make getting stains out of clothes _so_ much easier," Naka agrees with a sigh, shaking her head. "It would make dyeing fabric much simpler as well, both making and refining the dyes and getting consistent results."

"Refining and purifying pottery glazes," Madara offers, "although earth manipulation would be equally useful there, to determine exact mineral content."

"Irrigation systems," Kita adds thoughtfully. "We really don't know where the water goes or how much our crops actually need, and I know water moves differently through different soils and rocks."

"Waste water purification," Madara suggests, making eye contact with his wife in a way that suggests an in-joke; it certainly makes Kita smile fondly. "So we don't suffocate the fish." Tobirama is a little confused by what conversations would have to take place to enable the creation of such a joke.

"Papermaking, probably," Naka says idly. "It certainly involves a lot of water to make and actually controlling the water movement would let you make all kinds of complex dye patterns as well as grant finer control over paper thickness and texture."

"Carving," Madara adds, eyeing Tobirama pensively. "I've seen water jutsu slice through stone and on a smaller scale that could be used for both construction and art. Carpentry and stone lanterns, certainly."

He is going to have to write all these down; Tobirama is most impressed by the idea of using a pressurised water jet as a cutting tool. Carving stone with water would be _much_ faster than using steel tools and much less expensive as well; the clan could have seamless stone sinks rather than wooden ones. They'd be far more hygienic. Even with treatments to prevent warping and seal moisture out, wood still decays over time when constantly exposed to water.

Well that is certainly a good starting point; several very good starting points, in fact. He can't do jutsu right now, but he can calculate force and vectors and think about how he would modify the techniques he knows already for new purposes. "Are you doing anything in particular today, Kita-san?" Kita has on the universal Uchiha work-wear this morning rather than a kimono, implying that she intends to do something practical out of the house. Potentially even training.

"It's been a while since I did any wire work, so I'm taking a day to make sure I've not forgotten anything," she says comfortably, eyeing her sister, "and Naka never learned all of tōsan's tricks, so once I've proved I can do them I'll be teaching her." She shakes her head. "Hopefully Jōnen will regain enough flexibility to learn them as well once he's older, but if not he'll have to take on an assistant to do that part for him."

Tobirama has no idea who they're talking about and isn't going to ask. He's certainly heard the name before, but then again he's heard a _lot_ of Uchiha names lately and doesn't have faces or chakra to attach to most of them. "May I watch?" He asks instead. Uchiha wire is finer and more flexible than anything the Senju can get their hands on –save through scavenging from Uchiha corpses– and their techniques are correspondingly complex.

All three adults –although Naka is possibly still in her late teens– eye him, faces abruptly blank and careful. That is the expression Tobirama is most used to seeing on Uchiha; it's rather shocking how very emotionally open their faces are on their own ground. His family don't really do that, other than Hashirama who is loud and cheerful everywhere regardless. Which is quite honestly just another kind of mask.

Kita glances at her husband; Madara sighs, setting down bowl and chopsticks. "It's not like he hasn't seen it all before," the Uchiha Head says flatly.

That is probably true.

* * *

The training field Madara leads the way to already has a few warriors loitering around the edges; more people wander up as Kita goes through a set of basic stretching exercises and produces a coil of wire from her sleeve.

"Her father was a wire-smith," The Uchiha Head says from Tobirama's left, not looking away from his wife, "and Uchiha wire-smiths know all the best tricks. They have to, so as to make sure the wire is evenly flexible and won't break in the field."

Kita begins by coiling the incredibly long strand of wire around herself like a waterspout, a wide spiral starting at her ankles and spinning up in a glittering cylinder past the top of her head and down the inside in a continuous loop. There're appreciative hums and shouts from the sidelines; Tobirama agrees that this kind of fine manipulation is really impressive, especially since she's barely touching the wire.

The cylinder loosens into a series of large loops, scything around Kita's body in erratic, near-invisible arcs and trimming the grass several metres away. Tobirama feels a pang of foreboding; where has he seen this done before?

When has he seen Senju dismembered by this technique, losing arms and heads to ruthlessly accurate strikes? Most Uchiha combine wire with shuriken and fire, but Tobirama _knows_ he's seen pure wire-work like this before at least once.

As across the field the wire twists, sunlight glittering on neatly twisted nooses precise enough to pluck single leaves from the trees or flower heads from the grasses –there is more enthusiastic whooping from the sidelines– Tobirama remembers a bloody battlefield from about a year ago. It had been just another mission raid, targeting an Uchiha party making their way back to their clan compound, and it had gone messily wrong _well_ before Izuna charged onto the scene. There'd been ten Senju, outnumbering the five Uchiha two to one, and the enemy group had been a mix of young teenagers and greying middle-aged men. It should have been _easy_.

It hadn't been. One of the men –an echo of whom is clearly visible in Naka's face as she grins delightedly at her sister's skill– had pulled a coil of wire from his sleeve and halved the number of combat-capable members in the Senju party in the first few seconds, heads falling from necks and arms severed at the elbow and shoulder in a sudden bloody haze. The bags the Uchiha had been carrying were pushed on two of the teenagers, who had taken off at a dead run towards their clan compound –and at that moment Izuna had appeared in Tobirama's senses, making a beeline out of the compound towards them at high speed with chakra hot and agitated– while the last teenager and the other older man had sheltered behind the bloody, glittering reach of their colleague and backed him up with fire jutsu and illusions.

One of Tobirama's subordinates had tried to follow the runners and been decapitated at forty metres, almost double the range Tobirama has _ever_ seen another Uchiha achieve with wire before or since. They'd all ganged up on the man in the end, managing to separate him from his comrades and crushing his arms and legs so Tobirama could fill his lungs with water; his life flickered out just as Izuna arrived, indigo bones of solid chakra already flickering into view around the twenty-two-year-old as he charged Tobirama with a roar of fury.

He'd thought Izuna was angry at the death of such an accomplished warrior. Not that it was because Tobirama had just murdered Izuna's sister's father. Kita's _civilian_ father, who hadn't run, hadn't worn armour, hadn't shown more than the very basics of taijutsu and hadn't even had a _sword_ , because he'd not been trained for that. He'd been trained for the forge, not the battlefield. Tobirama hadn't even pondered the oddities of that focused dependency, or given a moment's thought to why he'd not seen such incredible wirework on the battlefield previously.

Tobirama had simply killed him and he knows his men scavenged reels and reels of that beautiful fine wire from his corpse before they'd been driven off by the two surviving Uchiha, wire the Senju trap-masters had delighted in and rhapsodised over later, and that had been _Kita's father_.

Kita, who transparently longs for peace and served him tea with impeccable grace and hospitality, who holds his life and chakra in her hands and _made him the coat he is wearing_.

Kita who is teaching her sister the neat, looping snaps that Tobirama has seen take arms off at the elbow at fifteen metres, calling it a dexterity exercise to test the wire's quality and integrity.

"Might I be excused, Madara-san?"

From the look on the Uchiha Head's face, he knows _exactly_ why Tobirama doesn't want to watch anymore. "Oshiki-kun, escort Senju-san back to the clan hall."

The vaguely familiar young man glares holes in the side of Tobirama's head for the entire journey, but doesn't lay a hand on him or so much as activate his sharingan.

Tobirama knows better than to look an Uchiha in the eye on the battlefield, but he suspects Kita's father never activated his sharingan either. The man may not even have _had_ it.

How is it the Uchiha can look the Senju and demand peace, knowing their enemies have the blood of so many civilian family members on their hands? How is it Kita can serve him food and smile and answer his questions so graciously? She _has_ to know how her father died; surely Izuna will have told her everything. Yes, peace is most certainly the _pragmatic_ choice considering the state of their clan, but experience has taught him that very few people are genuinely pragmatic and that the Uchiha are as fiery and passionate as their chakra nature implies; their tempers run hot and destructive behind their bland battlefield masks.

He doesn't understand. He never cared much for his father, but if his mother had died while travelling, rather than in the birthing bed with the little sister who was born cold and lifeless, had she been held down and murdered like that by somebody, he wouldn't be able to eat with them or speak to them so kindly. He might agree to peace with their clan for his brother's sake, but he would still hate them _personally_.

He doesn't know which Uchiha killed his little brothers, but he knows by the general age of the Uchiha forces that they must be dead now. There's not anybody _left_ old enough to have served under Tajima for a decade before his death. It's enough.

 _Does_ Kita know he did it? Or does she assume he was busy fighting Izuna and one or other of his men stuck the final blow? He knows that drowning men on dry land is something he's known for among Uchiha; it's an effective way to keep them from breathing fire and kill them quickly, provided he can overpower their chakra for long enough to haul water from their blood into their lungs.

None of this speculative dread is even _slightly_ useful; he'd be better off writing up the discussion of practical uses of water chakra and working out the theory of modifying suitable jutsu accordingly. If he ever _does_ have this conversation with Kita, it will be after the ceasefire is over and they hopefully have a proper treaty in place, _not_ while he is bound and leashed by her seals and entirely at her mercy.

* * *

There are two days left until they will be exchanging hostages at the border and hopefully setting a date and time for negotiating a proper peace treaty. Not everybody in the clan is entirely _pleased_ about the prospect of peace, but they all understand that war is unsustainable and that they do not have enough warriors left to effectively oppose the Senju. Maybe in a decade's time the Uchiha will have recovered enough for the more vindictive of the surviving elders to start agitating for revenge, but for the time being survival has priority.

Kita sits on the engawa stitching Sakurajima's coat lining, watching the rain. It's been due for a while and it's finally arrived; the heavens opened some time last night and it's been coming down almost constantly ever since. As a result most of the clan are staying indoors, although she has seen quite a few children running around in hats and coats; Iō's little training class is under cover, so will continue regardless of the weather. Azami and Toshi however are with Benten today: the weather means morning naginata practice has moved to the afternoons, when one of the covered halls will be free, and the girls are having a dolls' tea party in Hikaku's house. Yasakatone and Kinu were also invited, so Kita is sure they're all having fun.

The only person not hurrying through the warm rain on their way to somewhere else is Tobirama: he is standing on the grass in front of the house in a halo of droplets, practicing physical combat forms with the blunt digging blades Benten had made for him out of brittle iron. She's around the corner of the building from him and he can't sense her due to the Koschei heart-hiding seal, so he is likely completely unaware of having an audience to his apparent loss of sense. Tobirama's more than old enough to know that this kind of behaviour is how you make yourself sick.

Kita can only assume this is something to do with being water-natured; the man isn't even wearing his _coat_. He's soaked through, trousers and long-sleeved shirt sticking to his skin, bare feet squelching in the mud and usually fluffy hair plastered flat against his skull, but the feeling she is getting from his chakra is one of clear focus and profound joy.

She can feel Tobirama's chakra with incredible ease, every flicker and nuance laid bare, because of the nature of the seal she put on him to keep him from accessing it.

It's maybe a little embarrassing, but Kita had an _incredible_ amount of trouble working out a chakra binding seal that worked for her. There are chakra suppression seals on the Uchiha's guest house –old ones that are self-sustaining and so entrenched in the building they probably wouldn't unravel even if the walls collapsed– but Kita couldn't get her head around them. How do you suppress something that's _inside_ another person, keeping them alive? You can't suppress a person's _blood_ , so how does doing that to their chakra work? Maybe you can cut off their conscious access to it, or put on a gate so only so much can trickle out at a time, but cutting them off entirely?

Her first chakra suppression seal was a failure, although she thankfully recognised that _before_ putting it on anybody to test; it was a chakra _shearing_ seal, not a suppression seal. Once applied it would _permanently_ reset the victim's chakra system to the state it had been in before they started learning to manipulate it, forcing them to start again from scratch.

Kita has used _that_ seal exactly once, on the Senju infiltrator who surprised her on her way to the pigpens with a bucket of slops in her hand and her infant sisters tied to her chest. It had worked exactly as its structure implied; with the reserves and control of a small child, the man had been unable to resist the impromptu paralysis seal she slapped on him before disarming him, throwing him over her shoulder and tossing him to the pigs.

She can't say she regrets it, even now. Regrets that she wasn't in good enough mental shape to do something less final to him, maybe; there's nothing she can do about that now though.

Her second chakra suppression seal is what Tobirama is wearing, painted on his back over his heart and the chakra gate there. It's not _technically_ a suppression seal though; it could be more accurately described as a confiscation seal. She has confiscated control of Senju Tobirama's chakra and he will not get it back until and unless she gives it back. She can even _use_ his chakra without him so much as noticing; she tested it and took notes. His water affinity really is something else.

Of course, there's more to the bindings on their hostage than just the confiscation seal; there's a clause tucked into the side that grants him access to slightly more chakra in the case of his reacting to imminent harm being done to a third party –she is grateful for her own foresight there after the incident with Shironushi– the leash seal which runs off his own chakra rather than ambient chakra –making it twenty times stronger, so he physically _cannot_ be removed from the leash radius– and a surveillance seal she can tap into at will to check in on him. She's used that twice so far; once on one of his early walks around the compound when his chakra spiked slightly –Toshi almost tripped into a drainage ditch but recovered her balance at the last moment– and a few days ago when he didn't come to breakfast.

On the latter occasion she determined that he was upset about something rather than ill, so simply left his meals outside his room after knocking to let him know they were there until he surfaced properly again.

It's rather nice actually, sitting here as the rain falls just beyond arm's reach, sewing leisurely as Tobirama's chakra swirls contentedly under her skin parallel to her own.

The sudden twitch of wary discomfort jars her out of her meditative calm; three clansmen are approaching the garden towards Tobirama, each of their chakra tight and shuddering with pain. Kita sets her embroidery aside and gets to her feet, padding quietly towards the corner of the clan hall and activating the surveillance seal.

"–doing out here, Senju?"

"I am keeping myself in shape, according to your Clan Head's wishes," Tobirama replies calmly, lowering his hands and keeping his fingers loosely curled around the digging blades. They're not sharp, but the ring on the end will leave a significant bruise even without chakra-enhanced strength.

One of them men spits; Kita recognises him by the burn scar swirling across his face, courtesy of a run-in with the Sarutobi clan over opposing mission objectives. Uchiha Jakuchi; with him are Kanmuri and Mimuro. Mimuro lost his wife in the same battle that Izuna was injured almost a month ago, Kanmuri lost two siblings to a Senju ambush three months back and Jakuchi's ten-year-old son was buried shortly after New Year; he stumbled into a forgotten Senju trap on his way back from delivering a letter and bled out less than a mile from the compound.

It had been a _very_ inauspicious start to the year.

"It's all right for Madara-sama," Jakuchi says bitterly; "Izuna-sama's still alive. Why should he be spared losing the one closest to his heart?"

Jakuchi is being irrational in his grief; if he were in his right mind the Outguard veteran would know that Madara having the Mangekyō is in itself an indication of how terribly broken he has already been by loss.

"Madara-sama's lost three siblings out of four, Jakuchi," Kanmuri says harshly, turning to glare at her comrade. "I can't begrudge him for clinging to the last one. Amaterasu knows I won't be letting Amagi join the Outguard after what happened to Naka and Tōgasa." She turns her glare on Tobirama, eyes lighting up with the sharingan. " _Who_ happened to Naka and Tōgasa."

It wasn't actually Tobirama who killed Kanmuri's siblings –he wasn't even there for that skirmish– but he's a Senju and he's within reach.

Tobirama's gaze slides away from Kanmuri's eyes, focussing on her nose and eyebrows as his shoulders drop and he seems to shrink in on himself. Kita's never actually seen the eye-evasion trick done before and sensing it from this side is rather interesting. The trio are standing inside the garden now, positioned in a half-diamond formation flanking Tobirama so he can't keep all of them in his sight at once. Of course he's a sensor so he knows where they are even without his eyes, but he's tangibly uncomfortable at being cornered and is tense with anticipating an attack.

An attack he is well aware he is unlikely to be able to escape, bound as he is. Kita steps around the corner of the engawa into Kanmuri's field of vision, just in time to see Mimuro drop a knife from his sleeve and stab it up towards the lower edge of Tobirama's ribcage behind his back, his chakra utterly calm and steady.

Kita feels her own chakra spike violently, incredulity and anger mingling with utter betrayal as her vision is tinged with red.

 _You will_ _ **not**_ –

* * *


	12. Chapter 12

The entire building shakes to the sound of loudly splintering wood and screaming; Madara throws down his brush, grabs his sword and dashes to the front door, pausing in the genkan to take in the scene before him.

The corner post to his right that should be holding up the roof is a shattered stump, the engawa under it splintered. Kanmuri, one of his subordinates, is pressed against the stone lantern beside the garden gate, face grey, and Jakuchi –one of his senior lieutenants– is a few paces to her left, cradling Mimuro in his arms and pressing pale medical chakra to the younger man's right shoulder.

Mimuro is greenish, clammy and shaking like a leaf, his right shoulder a bloody stump in the tattered remains of his coat sleeve. His mangled arm is lying in the grass beside the improbably immense wani sprawled diagonally across the front garden from gate to engawa, rain haloed over scales shading from slate blue above to bone white below, with a familiar and increasingly damp nagajuban draped across its shoulders, an equally familiar and damp kimono on its middle and a no less familiar obi hanging over the base of its tail, one end trailing in the mud.

There's a hair comb and pin lying by the splintered hole in the engawa beside the curve of the wani's tail, a familiar pair of house slippers have fallen into the gutter and the eye he can see in the side of that massive crocodilian head is red with a spinning Mangekyō pattern somewhat reminiscent of five curling waves. Tobirama is sprawled face-down under the wani's stomach, only his head, shoulders and hands visible and all liberally splattered in mud.

That the wani can only be Kita explains exactly _nothing_ about this.

"Madara-sama!" Kanmuri gasps, eyes meeting his in desperate relief through the rain. "Kita-sama, she just," the woman waves a hand than manages to encompass Mimuro's bitten-off arm and the fact that the Outguard Head's wife is now a sea dragon over six times a tall man's height.

Madara looks at his wife, looks down at Senju Tobirama whom she is _protecting_ and has a deeply unpleasant inkling of what may have just happened. His father _did_ warn him of the potential repercussions of marrying a Toyotama in his final moments, _especially_ one who has suffered losses sufficient to activate their lineage's Mangekyō.

His father had ordered him to prioritise Kita after his death for _good reason_. The first Toyotama was married to a long-ago Outguard Head's younger son, and her first act upon activating her Mangekyō had been to _eat_ him.

Every lineage's Mangekyō is slightly different; their eyes all open in grief, but what _wakes_ a specific manifestation changes from line to line. Tsukuyomi wakes from the desire to harm; Amaterasu from the fear _of_ harm. They are the signature techniques of the Amaterasu lineage, along with Susano-o, which arises from the determination to endure. Yomotsushikome wakes with the desire to pursue; Yatagarasu from the determination to _end_.

Toyotama-hime awakens in betrayal.

"Which one of you," Madara asks gently, slipping into his sandals, loosening his sword in its sheath and stepping out onto the wet path, "attacked the man who stands as hostage to my brother's life?"

He already knows the answer; Kita has maimed exactly one of them. Whether the other two are complicit remains to be seen.

Kanmuri stills in confusion, but her eyes soon narrow and slide over to Mimuro; Jakuchi's gaze drops to the man in his arms and his eyes widen in enlightened horror.

Mimuro is promptly dropped, the other two retreating backwards out of the garden as the wani rises from her crouch, muscles shifting in short, powerful legs and webbed, clawed feet tearing the ground under them, her tail lashing and casually destroying a peony bush. The garden was not designed to accommodate anything so large as this and it's very obvious.

Madara walks along his garden path as the rain plasters his hair flat and soaks into the shoulders of his kimono, casually orders Tobirama to "stay down," as he passes him and pauses level with his wife's chin, eyeing the mutilated and shaking traitor on his knees in the mud, well within reach of her massive mouth full of pointed, bloody teeth.

"By your actions you have attempted to murder my brother Izuna," he says conversationally to Mimuro, "for Senju Tobirama stands as hostage to his life, so the death of one would surely result in the death of the other. To assault my brother is to assault me; to assault the Outguard Head is treason against the clan."

Mimuro bares his teeth. "My wife is _dead_!"

"Today you join her," Madara informs him flatly, "and your son will not remember either of you."

The man's eyes widen in sudden terror; evidently he'd forgotten the boy while consumed by his hatred. More fool him; Madara draws his sword, conscious of the growing audience drawn by the screams and his own towering volcano of chakra-enhanced rage.

"Madara-sama–"

"Raise. **Your. _Head."_**

Mimuro trembles, but straightens his spine and lifts his chin; the decapitating stroke is swift and clean. Madara shakes the blood from his blade as the head rolls to a stop. "Have his body burned," he orders Jakuchi, "and arrange his son's custody. The boy is not to be penalised; my wife has spared him from the consequences of his father's actions." Never mind that little Kujū-chan isn't even _two_ yet…

Jakuchi bows very low. "It will be as you command, Madara-sama."

Madara sheaths his sword, turns his back on his audience and walks a few paces forwards so he can crouch down beside the wani's eye. The pattern is indeed five curling waves radiating from around the pupil, chased with curving foamy edges; it's rather lovely. "Hime, most beloved wife, will you come into the house with me?" he requests gently, stroking the scales on her snout. "You rather need to change and I'd prefer it not happen out here." Whether the entire wani will fit into the building is irrelevant; if she can get her head and body inside that will be enough. The only clothing not strewn across her back are her kosode and slip, and he would much prefer her _not_ be walking around outside in her underwear for all the clan to see. Especially since it's raining.

Kita rumbles at him, the sound vibrating in his bones more than being heard by his ears, and twists back around on herself towards the open front door. Tobirama –who has _not_ stayed put– freezes as he realises what it is exactly that he was squashed under. Or rather who.

Madara is more interested in the knife lying discarded in the wet grass, a standard Uchiha fan-and-flame pattern lacquered into the hilt.

"Madara?"

He glances up at Tobirama, who has gone even paler than usual under the mud he is splattered with. "My wife's not going to eat you after going to all this effort to keep you _alive_ ," he informs the other man testily, picking up the knife and rising to his feet again. "Go and wash; you have mud in your hair."

Tobirama's eyes twitch, from Madara to the wani and back again, then he bows stiffly and retreats along the side of the hall towards the private bathing room at the north end beside the kitchen. The wani continues turning –tail casually mutilating a tree, losing the obi on a bush and knocking over the stone lantern by the garden gate– until she is facing the genkan, then stomps heavily inside, claws gouging lines into the stones of the path.

Madara rescues the obi, the slippers and the hairpins then follows in after her; everything else can wait.

* * *

Tobirama walks carefully around the side of the Uchiha clan hall to the bathhouse behind the kitchen, gingerly crouches –his back screams at him– to add more charcoal to the dying fire then straightens up again and slowly, repeatedly pushes on the handle of the pump that moves the water from the underground rain-fed tank into the boiler over the fire until the falling water stops echoing, indicating it is full. Then he steps into the bath house, stiffly strips out of his sodden, muddy clothes and walks into the shower room.

It's rudimentary, gravity-driven from the tank and won't be more than lukewarm after he's added all that cold water to it, but he doesn't care to wait. His lower back is one huge bruise, he has blood in his hair along with the mud –he can smell it, like he can smell it is not his own– and there is thankfully a bar of herbal soap on the shelf to his left along with a few nail brushes and clean wash cloths.

The water is a bit more than lukewarm, which is very nice on his back. Tobirama briskly soaps up his hair and arms, rinses them clean, quickly cleans the rest of himself and then takes the time to scrub his feet; he has mud under his toenails. His kunai blanks are out in the front garden somewhere, but he'll find them later. Right now he has more pressing matters on his mind.

No. Bath first; the Uchiha clan hall has some kind of heating seals in their large private pool, so it doesn't matter what temperature the water is going in. He saw them for himself the first time he used it and has been quietly envious ever since; unfortunately the design is impenetrable so he cannot simply copy it. Walking through the other door into the bathing room, Tobirama pulls the rope to open the pipe that fills the carved stone pool; the seals painted across the bottom come to life and by the time it is full the water is steaming slightly. Lowering himself carefully into the pool, Tobirama gasps as the hot water hits his bruised back and groans quietly as the pain fades.

It's a nice _deep_ pool too; the water comes up almost over the tops of his shoulders when he's sitting on the step. Closing his eyes, Tobirama leans his head back against the smooth curve of the edge and take stock.

There'd been two Uchiha in front of him and one just behind his left shoulder, but the one behind him had been calmer than the other two, so he'd mostly been focused on the hot crackling grief of the woman facing him who'd just activated her sharingan, when he'd been punched in the small of his back hard enough to drive all the air from his lungs. He'd collapsed forwards –there'd been a crunch of snapping bone and a terrible scream behind him that had rapidly been joined by another voice doing likewise– as something vast, scaly, heavy and _alive_ had been draped over his body from shoulder to knee, pressing him into the mud.

The associated chakra had been very obviously Kita's, so he assumed he'd just been flattened by a summon; Madara appearing out of the house moments later had been a relief, because he'd not been able to sense Kita anywhere and she'd not intervened to stem the growing chaos either.

Then Madara had spoken and Tobirama had been forcibly reminded that calm chakra did not prevent a person from killing. Shinobi did not need to show their emotions through their chakra; it was just that most Uchiha did not bother to hide their intentions.

So _foolish_ of him; he knows better. His father had certainly beaten it into him that _anybody_ within arm's reach is a potential threat and should be treated as such. Madara's summary execution of the man who planned to murder him –whose severed arm had been lying in Tobirama's line of sight as he struggled out from under the wani– was both perfunctory and rather predictable considering his palpable fury; it was what the Uchiha Head did _next_ that had shaken Tobirama to his bones.

Madara had crouched down, addressed the immense wani fondly and called it _wife_. And when it had turned its head towards him Tobirama had seen the twisted sharingan spinning in its visible eye.

Tobirama has seen both Madara and Izuna do incredible and impossible things with their bloodline. The unquenchable black fire; the gigantic skeletal chakra constructs. He's also seen temporary invulnerability and a one-hit kill technique from other clan members; less flashy and chakra-heavy but no less dangerous. But _this_ … a complete _physical_ transformation? One which clearly requires no additional chakra to maintain? Into a beast easily as strong as a mid-sized summon and no less large?

What _is_ the Uchiha's bloodline, that it lets them do so many _different_ things?

The outer door opens and there is running water and quiet murmuring from the shower room; Tobirama keeps his eyes firmly closed. He knows whose chakra that is; that Kita's is once more contained in a human shape indicates that the transformation is reversible and the condition of her reserves suggests the chakra cost is surprisingly low. He does not want to think about what kind of damage an eleven-metre wani could do when rampaging across the battlefield, even without chakra enhancement; those scales had not looked like edged steel would do much more than break on them and he knows from unfortunate experience that elemental chakra is not particularly effective against crocodiles.

Crocodiles are also generally less than _half_ the length of what Kita turned into, and they _still_ manage to eat the riverlands' shinobi with depressing regularity. Incautious visiting shinobi too; there's a reason everybody with sense uses the bridges, even if they do wash out every five years or so and need replacing.

The running water shuts off; more gentle murmuring follows and then footsteps enter the pool room. Tobirama does not open his eyes until both of his hosts have joined him in the water; Kita's long hair swirls loose just under the surface as she leans into Madara's chest, her eyes closed and chin barely above the water. The Uchiha Head has his usually wild hair up in a lopsided bun, one arm wrapped around his wife's shoulders under the surface and his attention completely focused on her, all of his posture and chakra screaming attentiveness and care. Tobirama, once again, feels uncomfortably as though he is intruding.

He closes his eyes again, slumping down further under the water. The heat is not going to fade, he has nothing he needs to do and absolutely _nobody_ is going to dare disturb the other two people in here after what happened this morning, not even if half the clan compound is on fire. Madara's relatives will keep their daughters busy and distracted, others will step up to tidy the mess in the front garden and probably deal with Madara and Kita's sodden kimono as well.

Tobirama only has today and tomorrow left in the Uchiha compound before he is ransomed back for Izuna. He suspects that everybody is going to be on their very best behaviour after this morning's incident; he's never heard any of the Uchiha clan address Madara with such abject humility before.

It is how they talked to and about Uchiha Tajima though. Considering Madara had at that point just decapitated a clansman in the middle of the street, to which nobody had dared voice an objection, it has unsettling implications. As did Madara's insistence that the man's son not also be punished for the transgression; had Tajima not made that distinction?

These are not his problems. Uchiha Tajima is nearly four years dead.

"Tobirama-san." He cracks open his eyes to meet Madara's.

"Madara-san." He's not going to call the man '-sama,' not when '-san' has been perfectly acceptable so far.

"Jakuchi informed me of your injury; Yori will be over later to heal you."

"That is unnecessary, Madara-san." He doesn't want anybody else's chakra under his skin, not when he is unable to resist it.

The other man glares at him. "I _will_ return you to your brother in as good condition as you arrived in."

That is most certainly a threat.

"I can lend him his chakra back and he can do it himself," Kita mutters, one eye half-opening. "Would you be more comfortable with that, Tobirama-san?"

Yes. Most definitely. Tobirama ducks his chin in a token bow. "I would be most grateful, Kita-san."

Her eye closes. "Go ahead then."

She's not _done_ anything that he can see, but Tobirama can suddenly reach his chakra. It's the work of a moment to refine the appropriate medical technique for self-diagnosis –two badly bruised floating ribs, equally bruised muscles and organs around them and a slightly jarred spine– and healing the damage is suitably straightforward. Nothing's broken or out of place.

"Thank you, Kita-san," he says once he's finished. She hums agreement and then his chakra is gone again; he is now four times as curious about the seal on his back as he was before. A _variable_ binding seal? How on _earth_ does that work, never mind at a distance without any clear indications of chakra movement triggering an increase or decrease in restriction?

…She just gave him back access with his chakra while she and her husband are sitting neck deep in hot water with him; there _have_ to be additional security sections preventing him from attacking them, or possibly just from using his chakra externally. Still, tiered restrictions? That would take a _lot_ of clauses and working out, and she wasn't actually writing on his skin for all that long.

If the treaty actually happens, he is _going_ to take her up on that offer to visit and discuss fūinjutsu. He's _sure_ she is as interested in discussing techniques with a fellow practitioner as he is, or else she wouldn't have suggested it.

* * *

Madara doesn't bring up the subject of Kita's Mangekyō until after the girls have gone to sleep and they have the privacy of their own bedroom.

"How long have you had the sharingan, Kita?"

His wife sighs. "I really don't know, Madara," she admits tiredly, fiddling with the collar of her sleepwear. "I am intensely controlled in my chakra usage in the day to day; I regulate how it moves around inside my body and take care not to use any more than is strictly necessary, so that I never run short. To even activate the sharingan requires more chakra than usual being channelled in the pathways around the eyes, which… has probably only happened in brief instances of fear or stress. Going by which memories haunt me in the small hours of the morning and keep surfacing in dreams," she pauses.

Madara gently walks up to her and wraps his arms around her, resting his forehead against hers.

"I think, the first time would probably have been when I was fifteen and using my time-out seal while being ambushed," she admits softly, her breath gliding over his lips. "Then a few split-second snippets here and there, definitely including Akaishi's death, up until that Senju infiltrator surprised me. I probably had it active for quite a bit of that clash. After that," she shakes her head. "I honestly have no idea. I didn't realise what was going on this morning until you spoke to me and called me 'hime', at which point all Obaasan's stories sprung insistently to mind."

"I only know the one Toyotama-hime story," Madara says, holding her tighter. To not even _know_ she had the sharingan until after waking her Mangekyō? Her chakra control is _ridiculous_. Unbelievably impressive, but still ridiculous. "About the first one who ate her husband."

Kita huffs. "Did your version say _why_ she ate her husband?"

Madara pauses. "No," he admits cautiously. "Just that Toyotama-hime awakens in betrayal."

"I suppose I can tell you," his wife muses, leaning into him more heavily. "Hear then the tale of my ancestress, who was young and very beautiful and very much in love with a warrior of no lineage at all."

That is not at all the beginning Madara is used to hearing for this particular horror story.

"Her warrior beloved was of an age with her and they had promised one another they would marry once they were both of age," Kita continues, voice a light storytelling singsong. "But the Outguard Head's third son saw her and became obsessed with her; he approached her and she rebuffed him as gently as she could, because she loved another. But he was a man of power and privilege and not accustomed to being denied anything he desired. He desired her greatly, and his envy of the cousin who held her heart grew and bloomed, so that one day on a battlefield he took his chance and slew the beloved of the woman his heart desired, his own kinsman."

Yes, Madara has _definitely_ not heard this version before.

"No one saw his crime," Kita murmurs. "No one knew. The Outguard Head's son watched the woman he desired weep and grieve and mourn, he kept a respectful distance as she learned to breathe again and then he approached her, polite and deferential and gentle, hiding his iniquity deep within. And she came to care for him, and married him."

Madara feels like the whole world is holding its breath.

"They had children together, and raised them, but one day the man grew careless and as they lay together in their marriage bed he let slip that her first love's blood was on his hands. And my ancestress was filled with horror and fury, and tried to strangle him. He retaliated in anger and threw her across the room, but her sharingan had awoken as she wrapped her hands around his throat and in the seconds between him striking her and her crashing into the wall it evolved, and as she charged him again, heart full of grief and betrayal, she was changed into a form more fitting for what burned within her. And she tore her treacherous husband apart and devoured him, and grieved anew for what she had lost."

"That is a very different story," Madara says after a pause that makes it clear that, if there _is_ more, Kita is not going to share it.

"Obaasan said my ancestress only told the full tale to her children, for them to tell to their children, so that they might guard their hearts well and know the terrible power of their grief."

"You're going to need to read your line's sealed records."

Kita sighs. "I know. Have to talk to Echigo-oji as well, so he knows he's not the lineage head anymore. Well, at least this way the coats are back in the main line."

Madara hadn't realised the patchwork coats were specifically a Toyotama main lineage thing. Retrospectively, he probably should have. "I recognise that picking an heir is probably going to be awkward." The matter of their own children is going to be equally awkward, since Kita has without question inherited her Mangekyō from her mother and Madara has gained his from his father; Hikaku being Yatagarasu through their shared grandmother makes it clear that gender lines are not a sufficient distinction.

He doesn't want to think about the fact that Kita will likely go blind before she is able to teach her craft to one of their children. That her eyesight will fade and fail and she will no longer be able to do what she loves. Kita has no sibling to exchange eyes with; her sisters are all civilian and do not have the sharingan, never mind its grief-induced final evolution.

"Naka for now, since she's a fully fledged coat-maker," Kita decides quietly, "and Toshi and Azami after her; Midori sees embroidery as a chore and enjoys gardening and cooking far more, and Kinu is already wanting to learn more about charcoal and steel. We can revisit matters later, once everybody's a bit older. There's no point instating me as Toyotama Head when I already have far too many responsibilities." She pauses. "Then again, perhaps Midori as next Head _is_ a better idea; it's not like she won't enjoy it more and at fourteen, she's got a few years to learn the social side without neglecting any other duties."

"An excellent idea," Madara agrees. Uchiha Echigo is also the father-in-law of Kita's sister Tateshina, so it's not like Midori is going to evict her sister's in-laws from their family home. "On the understanding that it will be one of your children, not one of Midori's, who will inherit after her."

"Although I suspect whichever child that ends up being will be assiduously courted by some Toyotama first cousin or other," Kita mutters, "just to make _sure_ there are no surprise Amaterasu surfacing further down the line."

Madara coughs at her indelicacy, then chuckles wryly. "Probably. There's a reason lineage heads are discouraged from marrying other heads." He suffered through multiple headache-inducing history lessons on the subject well before he was even ten.

"The whole Raiden-Inari mess two centuries back," Kita agrees with a groan. "Petty feuding for three generations; dear kami, so _petty_. Yet here we are." Her eyes harden, "However I want to make very clear that anybody suggesting we annul our marriage will be summarily eaten with _extreme_ prejudice." Her killing intent spikes for a split-second.

"I will be sure to let the elders know." Madara hopes that will make a suitable impression; otherwise he may have to commit murder himself and Ohabari-oba will be very cross with him for undermining her authority as Homeguard Head.

Kita tilts up her chin and lightly kisses him. "Give me better things to dream about, husband."

Madara picks her up around the waist and carries her over to the futon, laying her down on her back and untying her sash. "Anything for you, Kita-koi," he promises her huskily, leaning down for another kiss. "Anything you want."

Her eyes are scarlet as he pulls away, tomoe spinning slowly in her irises. "You're all I want," she tells him quietly.

Madara groans, shuddering at the prospect of her memorising him the way he's spent the past few years memorising her. His hands drop to his own sash, his own mind torn between desire and screaming at his complete shamelessness. His wife's fascinated eagerness however strangles his inhibitions nicely; this will be the _first time_ she's consciously used her sharingan and _he_ will be the first memory fully etched on her mind.

"You have me," he vows as he undresses, feeling his own sharingan wake as well. He too wants to remember this moment and all the moments after it in perfect detail for the rest of his life.

* * *

The last day of Tobirama's stay in the Uchiha compound is entirely uneventful in a way that is without question deliberately bland. Toshi and Azami are swept off by a 'Midori-nee' for a day of learning about chickens and quail, Benten assures Kita that she has promised to spend the day helping 'Chidori-oba' and also vanishes right after breakfast without even taking a bento, and Madara is mysteriously lacking in any paperwork, despite having spent several hours every day for the entire past three _weeks_ in his study on top of the various negotiations taking place in the clan hall's central reception room at different hours of the day.

Instead Madara and Kita spend the entire day sitting in the dining room by the iori, going over a range of elaborately decorated and variously large scrolls together and talking quietly. Tobirama is summarily ignored, but upon attempting to train in the garden discovers he can't actually walk out of the building. He literally cannot step off the engawa or into the genkan; he can't even _fall_ off.

Evidently his leash has been shortened in light of yesterday's near-disaster. He would have minded less if Kita had informed him of the change _first_.

Tobirama spends the day reading scrolls borrowed from Kita's music room, which are rather more intriguingly varied than the ones in Madara's study. There's considerably more scientific material, on a range of subjects from caterpillar behaviour and life-cycles through botanical chemistry into speculation on a range of domestic electrical applications, an intriguing and eclectic mix of urban planning and architectural treatises, balanced out with quite a lot of pattern books, fiction and poetry.

Some of the poetry seems to be fragments of larger works. Those ones are… unsettling. He's not aware of any plays having these kinds of themes, or of any historical events they might relate to. The imagery is going to haunt him, he knows it.

_Let me tell you what I wish I had known when I was young and dreamed of prestige: you have no control of who lives, who dies, or how you are remembered after._

There's not much indication of provenance beyond a note that the poem is from a play and recited by a general, addressing his young ambitious aide from an impoverished background. The line about how 'history takes our measure' makes him feel uncomfortable as well; he knows _already_ that civilian history doesn't paint either the Senju or the Uchiha in particularly good light.

He wants to ask where Kita got all these from, but doesn't care to interrupt whatever she and her husband are doing. Those scrolls look like clan history and that's really _not_ his business at all. Kita's books of mythology and yōkai stories are a much safer subject matter.

Well, they should be; some of these stories _are_ vaguely familiar, but most of them are new and strange in a way he can't quite put his finger on. The one about a sage scorning his hardworking, obedient and dutiful firstborn and granting the family inheritance to his lazy, free-spirited and idealistic second-born makes the hair on the back of his neck prickle, as do the final lines of how the descendants of the two brothers have been fighting ever since. It doesn't quite _fit_ with the other stories in that volume, which are more morality tales and intended for teaching children to be wary of strangers, mind their manners and not wander off in the woods.

Are these Uchiha-specific story collections or something Kita has assembled herself? If the latter, where on earth has she got them from? They feel… old. The other volume is more clearly fantastical inanities intended purely for amusement, although the ideas in the stories themselves are frequently innovative and peculiar. Like the story of the prince with the flying puppet horse; Tobirama has not seen a flying puppet yet, but the possibility seems somewhat plausible. But how would a person create a puppet with its own internal power source that could be operated by a civilian?

Tobirama suspects that if he wants to know, he's going to have to do some investigating of his own. He's never really been interested in children's stories before now –why would he be– but now he's older he can see the subtleties and subtext underpinning the morality tales, the lessons intended to teach, so he can maybe understand why civilians are so keen to instil them in their children. The fantastical strangeness is more clearly recreational, but still interesting.

He has quite a list of things to look into, in fact: ceramic chemistry –although Madara has been fairly helpful on the subject already– alternative uses for water jutsu and now yōkai stories. He can at least ask his clan's children about any yōkai stories they might know, and he's got enough time today that he can copy some of these ones out to take back with him.

He's been living amongst Uchiha for three weeks and his worldview has been turned upside down and shaken hard at least four times. Tobirama wonders if the same has been happening to Izuna in the Senju compound.

It will be good to go home, although he's going to miss the fresh fish.

* * *

Madara had been right to not mention Tobirama's new coat in Izuna's letter: as soon as his brother sets eyes on the younger Senju he _twitches_ , chakra bristling. However he keeps his mouth firmly closed –jaw working in a way that implies he's grinding his teeth– as the official to-and-fro takes place and Tobirama sets down his bag and takes off his coat so that Kita can remove the seal binding him.

This is in many ways the critical moment; Izuna is very clearly in full health, but if Tobirama chooses to retaliate in some way it is Kita who will bear the brunt of it. The Senju have been targeting the Uchiha's sealing specialists for years, so Tobirama may yet decide that removing her will be in his clan's best interests. It's an effort to stand still and not intervene prematurely.

But all the man who has been their hostage for the past three weeks does upon being granted back full control of his chakra is to turn his coat inside-out so the Senju crest is clearly visible, put the garment back on and bow to Kita, the depth indicating utmost respect.

Madara was _not_ expecting that. Going by the wide-eyed expressions, neither were Izuna or Hashirama.

"Should peace talks go ahead, I would be honoured should you be willing to arrange a meeting to discuss fūinjutsu, Kita-san," Tobirama murmurs politely, straightening up again and picking up his bag. "Please pass on my thanks to your kinsmen for their hospitality."

Kita bows back. "Naturally, Tobirama-san."

Hashirama's face is alight with glee as he bounces on his toes, barely containing his excitement as Izuna bows perfunctorily to him and voices rather flat thanks for the care and diligence shown by the Senju's healers in restoring him to full health. That Izuna takes pains to stay well out of arm's reach is rather telling, but Madara doesn't comment as the two younger brothers pass each-other in the centre of the clearing –Izuna glares briefly at Tobirama in a way that suggests he's trying to set the man on fire through sheer force of will– and are each returned to the arms of their family.

Madara instantly wraps his brother is a tight hug, uncaring of his audience. "Otōto," he mutters, resting his forehead against Izuna's.

"Tobirama! I _knew_ you and Madara could get along!"

"Anija, please. You're making a scene." Tobirama's tone is longsuffering, but after three weeks of hearing the man talk during meals Madara can pick out the quiet joy underpinning his words.

"A _coat_ , niisan?!" Izuna hisses quietly, poking him in the chest. "Oh we are going to _talk_ about this later."

Madara smiles helplessly. "You're still alive," he says wonderingly. He'd known abstractly –his brother's chakra in the seal still written on his shoulder has never wavered– but to _see_ Izuna, walking easily with his colour back and his chakra vibrant, after Yori's damming verdict most of a month ago… this is a blessing he never could have _dreamed_ of. Not just alive, but _healthy_ and by his movements even unscarred.

Izuna's shoulders sag slightly. "Yes, I'm not dead," he agrees a little tightly. "The healers were very thorough; I think they wanted to make sure you wouldn't have an excuse to not give them back their favourite Senju." His lips twitch. "Hashirama has a terrible weakness for gambling, niisan; I won a solo messenger mission's worth of cash, a three-hundred-year-old brush rest and water dropper set and six kilograms of mature sandalwood before Mito-san made him stop."

"Thank you," Madara whispers. It means more to him than he can say that his brother has stayed with the Senju for the full three weeks when he could have escaped sooner had he cared to do so. Even if he _has_ made an effort to fleece Hashirama at cards and dice in the meantime.

His brother huffs. "Yes, well, you owe me fish for dinner; there is no fresh fish to be had _anywhere_ in the Senju compound! They don't even have a stream through their compound to fish _in_! Three weeks without fresh fish, niisan! In spring! It's a travesty!" He punches Madara lightly on the shoulder.

Madara laughs, letting go. "I'm sure Kita can arrange fish at every meal for a week," he teases. "You'll be heartily sick of it by the time the moon turns."

Izuna scoffs, shrugging the strap of his umbrella bag into a more comfortable position as he moves to the side and settles himself at Madara's right hand, where he belongs. "As if."

Turning his attention back to Hashirama and the Senju party, Madara folds his arms across his chest and announces, "The Uchiha clan is satisfied with this show of good faith."

Hashirama _beams_. "Let's make peace then!"

Madara inclines his head, determined to keep to the appropriate formalities. "The Uchiha clan is willing to offer an ongoing ceasefire so that a proper treaty can be discussed and formal terms set. The Akimichi clan have already offered to host the negotiations, starting two weeks hence." Thanks entirely to Kita's friendship with Akimichi Mao, who apparently wrote to her father in sufficiently glowing terms after Kita let her know about the success of the ongoing hostage exchange that Chōtai-san decided the risk of offering to host the heads of two legendarily rival clans would be worth it.

Several Senju suddenly look more interested; evidently Hashirama is going to have a lot of volunteers wanting to join in treaty negotiations, if only so as to get to eat well for the duration.

"The Senju clan are honoured to accept!" Hashirama chirps. "We will accept the Akimichi clan's generous offer and meet the Uchiha clan to establish a formal treaty in two weeks time!" He bounces like he wants to charge across the field and wrap Madara in a suffocating hug, smile still dominating his face as he throws his arms wide. "Madara, we're finally making it happen!"

So his friend _can_ do formal; he just can't be bothered most of the time. "I look forward to negotiating terms," Madara replies, inclining his head and then signalling the retreat. He's already got a preliminary treaty fleshed out, but now he will have to present his case to the elders and lineage heads and argue them into submission.

At least Ohabari-oba is fully on his side now; Tobirama's kindness towards her children and his concern for her youngest when Shironushi injured himself bore unexpected fruit there.

* * *

Tobirama patiently allows Tōka to hustle him to the healers for a full examination –he is well aware of being in full good health and that there are no seals remaining on his skin– then extricates himself so as to take his clothing and scrolls back to his house. Hashirama is currently rejoicing over his success in 'persuading' Madara to agree to peace, so he intends to make the most of this respite; he is sure that by dinnertime or tomorrow morning at the latest his brother will be bombarding him with questions about the Uchiha generally and Madara personally.

All the clothing in his bag is clean with scented herbs folded between the layers, so he transfers it all back into his wardrobe after hanging up his new coat beside his armour rack.

He needs to talk to somebody about the coat. Probably Yuta-oba, who arranges the purchase of the clan's formalwear and battledress; she will know what it is worth, in material and in labour, and may be able to give him an idea of what a suitable thanks would consist of.

The kunai blanks are wrapped in one of his shirts for safe-keeping; Tobirama transfers them to a shelf and sets the various scrolls he has written and copied while in the Uchiha compound beside them. The critique of that terrible philosophy scroll he left behind for the edification of whoever had been foolish enough to pay money for it, but all his other writing he has brought home.

He will lend the deconstruction of his strategies' effects on the Uchiha clan –and how assumptions and cultural differences have led to the rift between them growing rather than shrinking– to his brother only after Tōka has read it; she is more likely to grasp the implications and will not attempt to ignore its contents simply because they make her uncomfortable. The jutsu usage scroll he will discuss with the clan's vassals, for further input on ways that chakra techniques can be integrated into civilian life, and then take up with Hashirama; if the Senju are truly to have peace, then they will need to reduce their dependence on mercenary work as the Uchiha have done.

"So what's this I hear about you trying to seduce Madara's pretty wife away from him with fūinjutsu, otōto?"

Tobirama turns to smile at his brother's wife. "Mito-nee. Are you well?"

"Very well; the Uchiha was tolerably well behaved, even if he _did_ manage to con your brother into betting half your father's writing set on a children's game."

Tobirama winces; yes, that's very Hashirama. At least it wasn't their grandmother's plum-blossom vase this time; thankfully he'd been able to steal that back for Baasan later. He and Mito now know not to leave _anything_ out in the main clan hall that they don't want to chance Hashirama offering as stakes in whatever game he is playing today.

"Don't think I missed you not answering my question," Mito comments archly.

"I am not sure why anybody would assume seduction," he replies honestly. "Her fūinjutsu is unlike anything I have seen before and she suggested the possibility of comparing notes after the treaty is in place. I was simply communicating my willingness to accept the offer."

"So it's her trying to seduce _you_ with fūinjutsu," Mito concludes, "and succeeding."

Tobirama frowns. "I assure you that Kita-san has been nothing but proper and appropriate, regardless of the power granted her by the seals placed on my person." She had in fact been exquisitely respectful and far more gracious than he perhaps deserved; especially when he is the one who killed her father. At no point had either she or her husband attempted to discuss anything which might lead him to betray details of the inner workings of the Senju clan, or indeed treated him any differently to a frequent out-clan guest. Other than the seal on his chakra, of course.

Mito smiles meaninglessly at him, making herself comfortable in one of his chairs. "So tell me about your stay with the Uchiha then; your letter was somewhat lacking it detail, and while Izuna-san very kindly allowed me to read his brother's letter, it is to be expected that Madara-san will have glossed over any uncomfortable details."

Recognising that he is not going to get out of his sister's concerned interrogation, Tobirama sits down in his preferred chair and marshals his thoughts.

"I was hosted in the Uchiha clan hall," he begins, "in a private room with a seal lock on the inside. Kita-san did most of the cooking herself and all the meals were communal, including whoever else was in the hall at the time. Madara's cousin, who I believe to be the younger sister of Tōka's usual opponent Uchiha Hikaku, was moved into Izuna's room to make space for me, and Madara also has two daughters Tsunama's age whom he did not discourage from interacting with me."

Mito smiles knowingly at the mention of children; Tobirama ignores her. He already knows that his fondness for children amuses her, especially since he is unlikely to ever have any of his own. He has never been particularly interested in women –or men– that way.

"Madara granted me free access to a range of books and scrolls –he will certainly have made sure to secrete anything he did not wish me to see well out of reach beforehand– and after the first few days passed uneventfully he allowed his children to show me around the compound."

"And of course you could not possibly have refused them, or done anything which might have upset them," Mito comments slyly.

"The Uchiha clan were quite unanimously reluctant to do or say anything in the presence of their Clan Head's twin daughters that might have led to their realising I was technically their enemy," Tobirama replies calmly. "I don't believe they even realised I was a Senju. Kita-san certainly went out of her way to imply I was Hatake."

"Clever." Mito purses her lips. "You _do_ look Hatake, but the deception meant that the other Uchiha were also required to treat you as a Hatake, which is doubtless better than you would have been treated as a Senju."

"The older children all knew," Tobirama concedes, "but they were sufficiently insulated from the battlefield to be more curious than afraid once their Clan Head made it clear I was not a threat to them." He pauses. Should he? "The Uchiha clan has considerably more children than the Senju do." There are fifteen children in the Senju clan at the moment, eleven of whom are younger than eight.

Mito eyes him. "How many more is 'considerably,' Tobirama?"

Tobirama looks down. "I believe the children to outnumber the adults."

Mito breathes in harshly; she is a parent, she understands the nuances there. "Well, that puts the prospect of peace in a rather different light, doesn't it?"

Tobirama will not burden her with the litany of his culpability in this development; he will talk to Tōka and she will have good advice for him. Mito has more than enough responsibilities already, considering Tsunama and how she is the only person Hashirama will deign to heed on political matters.

He does his best, but his older brother has made a habit of ignoring him when Tobirama says things he does not want to hear.

"I believe they are sincere in wanting peace, and that they intend to honour any treaty made," he offers. "They may even be open to the collaboration Anija is so desperate to enact between our clans."

Mito nods firmly. "Well then, this is less of a disaster than it might be," she decides. "I will see what can be done." She rises to her feet. "And if there are to be _any_ fūinjutsu discussions with Uchiha-chan, I would like to be included." Of course; she is no less a sealing specialist than he is. More so, in fact.

Tobirama smiles. "I am sure Kita-san will have no objections."

* * *

Izuna fumes all the way back up to the guardhouse, puts on an impressively good façade for everybody wanting to hug him and check him over –Yori in particular– then excuses himself back to the clan hall, where he carefully closes all the shōji around the reception room before yelling at the both of them at the top of his lungs.

"You made Tobirama a _coat_?! What were you _thinking_?! You _know_ what that means! Why is it every time I leave the two of you alone you do something _completely_ outrageous?! Why do you always _do_ that?!" He throws his hands in the air, pacing restlessly. "I can't _believe_ obasan didn't stop you! It's bad enough that I had to deal with ten days of suffering through bland food and being poked by Senju chakra at all hours of the day and night, _then_ put up your suffocatingly over-affectionate humanoid kudzu plant wanting to _smother_ me because it thinks we're _friends_ now, and _then_ I find out that while I was gone _you_ two have gone and _adopted_ the man who, might I remind you, _tried to kill me!_ "

Madara looks crushed. "Otōto, it wasn't like that!" He protests.

"It's _not_ an Uchiha coat," Kita echoes firmly. "It's not got the crest on _anywhere_ , just a Senju crest, and it doesn't have the collar either. I made it because he arrived in nothing but a shirt and trousers, and with his chakra sealed he needed more layers than that to not get sick."

" _You_ made that coat, Kita! You, who make our clan's _best_ coats, made a coat for our _enemy_!"

"I made a coat for our _hostage_ ," Kita says, her irritation growing, "whom honour demanded we treat as we hoped _you_ would be treated by the Senju. Yes, I _did_ make him a coat, because _in_ a coat he looks less Senju and therefore less objectionable, so I felt more comfortable letting him wander around the clan compound with Toshi and Azami. Which I _had to do_ , because what we are doing here is _unprecedented_ Izuna, so Madara and I _had_ to project _total confidence_ that it would work, so that the rest of the clan could follow our lead!" Which yes, _did_ work, but that doesn't mean it wasn't also intensely stressful to have to take so much on faith. The clan has let her down so many times before that it's hard to trust their collective goodwill. It's _so_ hard to have faith when the reason things have got so bad is that half the clan didn't _want_ peace until very recently.

Izuna looks a little taken aback. "Kita, you have the sharingan?"

Of course it would be _that_ which he pays more attention to. "Why is that relevant to this discussion, Izuna?"

"I, it," her brother-in-law looks slightly hunted. "How long have you had the sharingan, imōto?"

"Since your father sent me out on all those trading missions when I was fifteen," Kita says tartly, "not that I noticed until the other day."

"How can you have the sharingan and _not_ _notice_?!"

Kita folds her arms across her chest, aware that her husband is spectating warily. "Since I focus on _controlling_ my chakra and therefore do not let it run wild every time I get into a fight, so do not usually activate my sharingan and have therefore never come to rely on it." Just, _why_ are they arguing? "Clearly the coat matter is _trivial_ if my having activated the sharingan is more important; I will go and move Benten's futon out of your room again."

"Kita? No wait–"

"Otōto, a word?" Madara asks, stepping in firmly and catching his brother's arm as Kita leaves the room before she does something she knows she'll regret.

Having Mangekyō is like owning a large stockpile of explosives; you suddenly realise that it offers an effective solution to many of life's problems, even though you simultaneously know that all it will do will create new and more complicated problems. Yes, she _could_ turn into a gigantic dragon-crocodile and menace her brother-in-law with the threat of dismemberment and death, but that won't actually make their relationship _better_. All it will do is give her eyestrain, ruin the relationship they _do_ have and mean Madara has to spend a lot of money on structural repairs to the hall. She's done more than enough of that already, considering the repairs to that roof strut and the engawa; never mind the mess she made of the garden which Midori is still fixing. Doing that again…

Not ideal.

It's worse because she _liked_ having Tobirama around the place. He's exactly her kind of person; he gets it. They're on the same wavelength. He likes facts and knowing things and investigating how things work and coming up with new ways to make things work better. He likes her little girls and has infinite patience for them. He is unfailingly polite, but has a dry sense of humour under his manners. He doesn't stress the little things and works with what's in front of him. He's _restful_.

She's not had a quiet friend to just _be_ with in this lifetime and now the possibility of one has been dangled in front of her and she already misses him. It's not fair, but it's the truth.

Of course she has her husband, but that's a very different relationship. The stakes are much higher and so is the level of commitment. It would be really nice to have a low-stakes friend whom she doesn't have to be a part-time authority figure to; as seal master and wife of the Outguard Head, her position colours all her other in-clan relationships.

Kita breathes steadily and forcibly calms her chakra, then moves Benten's futon and her wheeled clothes cabinet back into Tajima-sama's old room; Tobirama tidied up after himself, so there's not a trace of evidence to suggest he was ever _in_ the room beyond the spare rolled-up futon in the corner that carries the faintest hint of water-natured chakra. She has already sent the sheets off to be washed and Tajima-sama's old kimono has long since been aired and put away again.

They will have peace. Things are not going to go back to 'normal.' They are going to establish a new normal, and Kita might just manage to make a new friend.

She's being horrendously optimistic, but she feels like she's _earned_ a little optimism.

* * *

Izuna is slumped forwards with his head in his hands as Madara finishes his quiet, very firm explanation of why Kita needs to be given space right now and not pushed.

"Mangekyō?" His brother mumbles eventually. "But, but… how? I mean, why her? It's not like she's the only person with the sharingan to lose her parents. She's not even the only person with the sharingan to watch a parent _die_. How does it even _work_? It says 'grief' on the stone but really, it's obvious there's _more_ to it than that. Well all lose people; we all grieve."

"I don't really care why," Madara admits frankly. "The issue is that the clan now has _seven_ Mangekyō wielders, internal precedence has been summarily thrown out the window _again_ and my wife has just proved that just because none of our other grieving kinsmen have activated their Mangekyō yet doesn't mean they _won't_ when faced with exactly the wrong circumstances. Her mother's been dead nearly four years and she was there and watching, but her Mangekyō has remained dormant until now. Which apparently is _normal_ for Toyotama; I'm going to have to go over all the other scrolls and see what might be normal for other lineages." Just in case. As Izuna has just pointed out, _everybody_ in the clan has been bereaved and more people than ever have the sharingan, especially among the younger teens.

Izuna bites his lip. "She's going to go blind," he mutters. "She _loves_ her embroidery and her patchwork and her reading, and she's going to lose _all_ of it."

"It hasn't happened yet," Madara says steadily, "and if the treaty with the Senju goes through, we may be able to consult with their healers. Besides, we both know that using the Mangekyō less slows the degradation just as much as proper training does. Half the reason for the advancing blindness is that past Mangekyō wielders have all been in the Outguard and using those techniques regularly." Which probably has as much of a part to play in the associated low life expectancy as the encroaching blindness. "Taka didn't use hers much and her eyesight stayed fairly good for far longer than ours did."

"Hikaku doesn't use his much either," Izuna agrees thoughtfully. "Then again, he also has Yori fussing over him with her yin jutsu."

Also true.

"Niisan?" Izuna wraps his arms around himself. "I, I didn't expect this to happen."

Madara blinks, confused. "I don't think _anybody_ expected Kita to activate Mangekyō, Izuna; not even Otōsama." Those warnings about Toyotama brides were basically a worst-case scenario.

"Not that," his little brother mumbles. "I, I didn't expect to see you again. I thought the Senju would just kill me –on purpose or possibly by not managing to heal me– and then you'd kill Tobirama and, well." He peeks up at Madara, chin quivering precariously. "But, but I'm still _here_ and, and what _now,_ niisan?"

Madara quickly shuffles over and hugs his brother tightly. "We go on," he promises comfortingly. "We try new things. You get to think up new ways to fleece Hashirama when his wife's not paying attention."

Izuna shakes, making a sound caught between a sob and a chuckle. "It, it was _fun_ , niisan," he confesses, "he's killed _so many_ of our clan and, and I played the fish game with him and he lost so _badly_. He got beaten by his three-year-old son _three times_ and wailed and sulked like _he_ was the toddler, then kept demanding rematches so he could lose _again_."

Madara feels his brother's tears seeping into his coat and doesn't comment on them. "Senju are just people," he says quietly. "Just like Uchiha are just people. That's why this war is so terrible: we're all just people, with silly hang-ups and odd habits and families we love, and we're killing each-other because we can't be bothered to stop. I know I've had as much a hand in killing all our clansmen as Hashirama; I'm the one sending them onto the battlefield each time. But we've always done it this way and change is hard." He is so, so grateful to Kita for listening to him struggle to articulate his feelings over the years, so that now his brother is ready to listen he can find the right words.

"I hate you for this," his brother mutters bitterly; Madara doesn't take it heart. It _is_ hard, knowing you're part of the problem.

"Tobirama knows too now," he shares quietly. "He had a talk with Kita about elemental chakra and realised that we train _everybody_ , not just the Outguard. Didn't come out of his room for two days afterwards." They'd been outside his office and sound carries well through shōji, especially if you're eavesdropping on purpose. "Then he came along to watch Kita do a wirework demonstration and had to leave almost immediately." He'd had guilt written all over his posture even with his chakra tightly contained, which was basically a confession. Not that they hadn't already known who'd killed wire-master Ikoma; lungs fall of water are fairly distinctive.

"Recognised the style, hm?" Izuna tches. "Serves him right." The wirework of the clan's wire-smiths is nothing at all like what the Outguard is taught for use on the battlefield; the whole point is to test the wire to the limit, to put it through things well _beyond_ what most warriors ever bother with, so as to be sure it will never fail to deliver. They are focused on form, function and beauty, not efficiency, and their techniques showcase the incredible control that is as much a requirement of their craft as strong chakra reserves.

If Kita hadn't been so enamoured of patchwork and embroidery and something of a late bloomer in terms of reserves, she'd probably have been trained up by her father as his successor. She certainly knows more than enough to help out in the forges when people are sick and he's heard her charcoal complimented for its fine consistency.

They aren't the _usual_ kind of skills an Outguard Head's wife is expected to cultivate, it has to be said, but they are no less admired and appreciated for that. Kita _understands_ craft, understands how important these skills are to the clan, and has made an effort to bring in _more_ skills so the Uchiha can be more self-sufficient. Yes, they are perilously low on manpower right now, but financially speaking they are very far from desperate.

Madara has always had the option of swallowing his pride and asking the daimyo to grant the Uchiha land elsewhere in exchange for their hereditary territory, a place to live far _away_ from the Senju. He would hate every _second_ of it, but if Hashirama hadn't agreed to peace he probably still would have _done_ it. Or else packed up and moved to a different country altogether; they are wealthy and productive enough now that another daimyo would jump at the chance to get the Uchiha clan indebted to him by generously providing them with new land.

It is very much a last resort, but it is _there_. They now occupy a visible corner of the luxury goods market and that gives the Uchiha a new and entirely different kind of power. His father never really appreciated it, but Madara has paid attention and so has Izuna; the clan has more weight to throw around in the capital than ever before and Kita has bought that for them, with silk and ceramics and increased interest in their charcoal and ink and blades.

They will be negotiating with the Senju from a position of strength, although Madara isn't sure Hashirama has any idea how much _more_ the Uchiha bring to the table for peace these days. Yes, the Senju are 'the clan of a thousand skills,' but how many of those skills are useful in peacetime? How many of them bring in money without inciting violence and strife?

Madara is rather looking forwards to finding out. After all, to truly have peace, _both_ their clans have to stop profiting off other people's conflict. Tobirama has noticed; has Hashirama?

In two weeks' time Madara will be finding out. "Better, otōto?"

"I think so," Izuna admits, still leaning into Madara.

"Want to go fishing?" Neither of them are _good_ at it, but they generally manage to catch something worth eating between them.

His brother snorts. "Yes. Let's go find our own fish."


	13. Omake: Izuna's Senju Escapades

Izuna was expecting to die.

It's not that he _wanted_ to die! It's just… well, he's seen a lot of people die, hundreds of injuries etched in his brain by his sharingan and he _knows_ what a lethal wound looks like, okay? He _knows_. He knew even before Yori told him, although he was trying to deny it, and coming to terms and then having to deal with his big brother _not coping_ was… hard.

Izuna loves his brother. Adores every single part of him, from the incredible strength to the soft heart and all the awkward pieces in between. Some of those pieces are _deeply irritating_ but that doesn't mean he loves Madara any less, or wouldn't miss them if he changed. It's just… he _worries_ about his brother. It's that heart of his; he's too careless with it.

Kita's been good for him there; she's helped him make more friends and somehow managed to call him out over his obsession with Hashirama in a way that Madara both actually _listened_ to and then did something _about_. It's a relief; now Izuna doesn't have to worry about his big brother doing something dumb over the asshole Senju who very blatantly doesn't give a shit about him _or_ about the peace he keeps blathering about.

But. Izuna was expecting to _die_. Kita's hostage exchange was incredibly well thought-out: Hashirama would _have_ to accept it or else lose all credibility due to his continuous claims to want peace –ha, ridiculous when he's killed so many so cruelly and the only peace offered _them_ was found under a clansman's knife– and then Izuna would die knowing that Tobirama would not outlive him by more than a few minutes at the outside. He could die knowing he wasn't leaving the clan vulnerable, that his brother was well cared-for and the Senju would not have the upper hand in the war.

Except he's _not_ dead. The Senju have, somehow, managed to put him back together and while there have been complications, they've all been very swiftly and permanently _fixed_ the instant the healers noticed them. He almost wishes they were less attentive; no, actually he _really_ wishes that because he hasn't had a single night's uninterrupted sleep due to Senju coming in to check on him at _least_ twice nightly. Waking him up is probably unintentional, but Izuna hasn't lived this long by _not_ reacting to Senju chakra trying to get up close and personal, so he's wide awake for every visit regardless of how little he want to be.

He has at least finally been allowed to eat actual food and get out of bed. Which he'd foolishly believed was a _good_ thing, until it –very rapidly– became clear that now he is no longer in medical isolation Senju Hashirama wants to _be his friend_.

How on _earth_ can his brother look at this, this _moronic disaster_ and think, 'oh yes, we're friends'?! What has Izuna done to deserve _this_?! Is this karmic punishment, for greedily keeping all his brother's attention to himself when they were younger rather than helping his self-conscious older sibling make _real_ friends, so Madara would have had actual real experience of what proper friends were like _before_ he met this aggressively and manipulatively cheerful _avalanche_ and would have known better than to latch onto it?!

But no, the suffocating humanoid kudzu had latched on right _back_ , hadn't he? Izuna has never felt such profound, pained kinship for Senju Tobirama before and never wants to again; the man _lives_ like this? He shares a home with this sickeningly cloying chakra _soup_ clogging up his lungs and hasn't murdered him yet? _How_?

At least most of the Senju want nothing to do with him and the only one who stops by regularly is the genjutsu specialist with the fancy topknot who usually fights Hikaku; she seems to be high-ranking and to have made it her responsibility to ensure he doesn't slit his wrists to spite her Clan Head, which lately has started looking very tempting.

His brother's letter on what Tobirama has been getting up to back at home has at least made her settle a bit; it's fairly obvious that they're friends. Possibly even family, which Izuna knows is different to just being clan.

Then again, the Senju don't seem to _do_ clan the same way the Uchiha do. They don't have a manufacturing sector –which does explain why they're always looting Uchhia wire; their own is utter shit and do _not_ get him started on those _stupid_ kunai– and buy _everything_ from civilian craftspeople. Izuna's amazed they've not run out of money yet; then again, they _do_ grow their own food –all of it, not just most of it– although it's fairly clear that the Senju don't consider those clansmen who grow their food to _count_ as Senju.

To be a _real_ Senju you have to be a shinobi, which is a puddle of pig shit. No wonder they're all such unmitigated assholes.

Still, Izuna's learned some _useful_ things here. Like how the only person in the Senju compound whose personal space actually gets _respected_ is Senju Mito, because she knows exactly how to lead Hashirama around by the nose and make him think her suggestions are _his_ idea, and isn't afraid to do so in the name of peace and quiet. He also knows the kudzu moron has a son about the same age as Toshi and Azami –Tsunama-kun's surprisingly cute for having the parents he does, who are both horrific in their own different ways– and seems to think good parenting involves completely ignoring the boy until he's old enough to train.

Mito has her own wing in the Senju clan hall and lives there with her son; Hashirama's in a completely _different_ wing and Tobirama apparently has his own seperate _house,_ which just goes to show he's the one who inherited what brains were available in the Senju line. Not that Izuna gets the impression there were many to spare –Butsuma ordered the assassinations of Izuna's younger brothers then shoved all his own inexperienced young sons onto the battlefield too young to be anything but targets– so he may have got them from his Hatake mother, but most of the rest of the Senju _do_ seem to possess a modicum of sense, even if they're all complete idiots about other things. Who'd live with the human soup cloud if they didn't have to?

Izuna's sleeping in the medical wing still, so if anything goes wrong with his body during the night the healers can fix it before he dies. The healers are all very keen on him _not_ dying, which at least says they value Tobirama; he doesn't get the impression _Hashirama_ does. Wood-for-brains _knows_ Izuna's getting letters from home and hasn't even _asked_ about his brother yet.

No, instead he's barging in on Izuna several times a day and trying to be _friends_.

Surely nobody will blame him for strangling the man with his own stupidly long hair? And yes, Izuna _knows_ Madara's is probably longer, but all that means is that Izuna has _experience_ so is confident Hashirama's is long enough for murder to be feasible.

One week left. Seven days. Seven days and he can go _home_.

* * *

"Hiding again, niisan?"

Izuna looks down from his rooftop hiding place at the huddle of small Senju at ground level. "Yes," he admits, because at this point he has neither pride nor shame. He's really glad he got Kita to teach him that 'walking up walls' trick he'd caught her using one time, because Hashirama can _always_ find him if he's in a tree and there's not much _in_ the Senju compound that's not either a tree or a building with several storeys. Their architecture is _awful_ , even the half of it not obviously made by the human plant. Why build so _tall_? It's inelegant! Impractical! How do you add rooms or renovate without disturbing everybody around you? What happens if a ground floor room catches fire? It's all awful and poorly-conceived and that's not even getting into the issue of where you're supposed to store things when everybody's living on top of each-other, as there's no lofts or cellars to tuck inheritances and valuables into for safekeeping.

"Come play with us, niisan!" the girl suggests brightly.

Izuna jumps quietly down from the roof. It's sad but true that hanging out with the kids is the best way to avoid the Senju Head; he just doesn't pay much attention to them. The only people who get _less_ attention are the farmers' kids, who are more clan vassals than actual clansmen and don't even get to call themselves Senju. Only the _shinobi_ families are Senju.

Like _any_ clan would last six months without their farmers. Like _Izuna_ hasn't done his time helping get the buckwheat harvest in and wrangling the pigs, because everybody in the clan needs to eat and there's not enough adults to go around for anybody to get huffy over the prospect of manual labour. Yes, he's one of the clan's best warriors; so what? He still eats and shits as much as everybody else does. His brother does the same; it's how Madara first learned to use a scythe. Of course adjusting his technique for the battlefield came later, but still.

"So, what game did you have in mind?"

One of the boys waves a hand in the air. "Can you teach us a _new_ game, niisan?"

What kind of new game could he… aha! "Can any of you charming little monsters help me get my hands on a brush, some ink, a cheap scroll, a few pretty pebbles and a pair of dice?" Izuna asks. Kita's scroll games are always good for keeping small children busy for hours on end.

The array of excited little grins is rather charming, although Izuna desperately wants to buy them all better clothes. Senju clearly have not the _faintest_ idea of how to dress when out of armour.

* * *

"Izuna!"

Izuna tries to bolt out of the room but the stupid chair trips him as he tries to jump out of it and then the kudzu is upon him.

"Izuna, are you alright? You didn't hurt your head? Here, let me check!"

"Get _off_ me you overbearing bean plant!" Izuna hisses, shuddering at the press of chakra under his skin but not quite daring to push back; Hashirama is too strong for him. He knows it and he _hates_ it, thanks. "I'm _fine_ , let me _go_!"

Hashirama sets him back on his feet with a chuckle –Izuna _hates_ him– and slings an arm around his shoulders. "Mito told me all about the game you made for Tsunama! I'm so glad you're getting along!"

Izuna respects Mito greatly –she is a terror and all the more so for hiding it behind polite smiles and impeccable clothing– but right now he hates her too for throwing him at her husband as a distraction. What has he ever done to her? Personally, at least?

"Do you know any more dice games?" Why is the herbaceous moron still _talking_? "I've always been more of a cards person, but Mito got scary when I tried to teach Tsunama to play koi-koi." He pouts.

Izuna's not surprised; what kind of _idiot_ tries to teach a three-year-old a gambling game? Wait a moment; Hashirama _gambles_? "Yeah, I know a few more games," he admits, a plan already coalescing in his mind. Kita's not here with her outrageous luck, so he can probably win the fish game even without cheating. Of course he first has to make the flatfish… "I know a fun one, but it takes proper game pieces so I'd have to make them first."

Hashirama _beams_ at him; if Izuna wasn't plotting to fleece him he'd run away. The kudzu's sensory talents are limited to the immediate vicinity of his creations and regular trees –Izuna has tested this extensively– so he's much better at avoiding the wooden-skulled cretin now. "Can I help? Pleease say I can!"

Why not; this way the walking tree will be too busy to bother him for a bit. "I need seventeen square sheets of differently-patterned washi, enough thin board to back all of them, a short length of decent shinobi wire, a sheet of plain washi, glue and a writing set." That was what Kita had used to make the pretty fish set she keeps in a box and brings out to play with some evenings; Izuna watched her, so he knows he can replicate the process _exactly_. "Oh, and a pair of dice."

"Let's go then!"

What –no! "Let go of me!"

"Come on, I have dice, Mito has all of the rest except shinobi wire and glue and she'll know who to ask! Don't worry about the wood, I can make that!"

Izuna is going to make a _point_ of convincing this oaf to gamble with him for non-negligible stakes and then it is going to be _on_.

* * *

Half an hour later he is sitting at Mito's dining table, demonstrating to his audience of six –Mito-san, her adorable son, her idiot husband, Tōka who supplied the egg glue, the trap specialist who'd been shaken down for Uchiha wire and some other nosy passing Senju– how a bit of wire twined between finger and thumb and a touch of fire chakra makes for an excellent fretsaw, so long as the wood you are using isn't too thick. Yes, it leaves your work with blackened edges, but that isn't exactly a bad thing in this case.

He's already had Hashirama make him seventeen identically thin wooden boards the exact same size as Mito-san's washi and glued the washi to the boards, then neatly drawn the six fish pieces on the back of each board; head, two halves of the body, two fins and the tail. Then while the glue was drying he cut the plain washi into one hundred and two squares and divided them into groups of seventeen, decorating each group with a different number of dice spots. By the time he was done the glue was dry –well dry enough for a pinch of chakra to finish the job– and he set about using his impromptu saw to cut out the pieces.

"This is a flatfish," he says once he's cut out the first one, assembling it and adding the ink dots for the eyes. "The head is worth one" –he glues on one of the little squares with the single dot– "the left side of the body is worth two, the right side three, the left fin four, the right fin five and the tail fin six." The appropriate squares follow. "Mito-san, if you could supervise the gluing while I finish up the cutting, this will go faster."

"I would be honoured to offer my assistance," Mito murmurs, purple eyes sharp and knowing as her husband wails over not getting to help. "Hashirama, would you be a dear and make tea? I'm sure Izuna-san will need a drink after using so much chakra entertaining us."

Terrifying. Izuna is so glad Kita thinks manipulating Madara would be _inappropriate_ , it makes his home life so much less awkward than having to watch this farce every day would be.

The walking tree rhapsodises briefly over how thoughtful his wife is then hurries off to heat a kettle; Izuna keeps his head down and goes back to cutting out fish. He's pretty sure Mito has already divined his scheme to fleece her husband, but she doesn't seem inclined to _stop_ him.

Maybe she's planning on fleecing Izuna right back? If so, perhaps it might be a better idea to keep the stakes reasonably trivial.

"So how does this flatfish game work?" Tōka asks, making herself comfortable on the window sill. That's another thing about Senju houses; they don't have proper shōji or fusuma. Instead it's solid walls and storehouse-style doors everywhere, even between internal rooms, and large, square windows with washi, shutters or occasionally glass in them. Like that's not a security hazard.

"It's pretty simple," Izuna admits, most of his attention on cutting out fish. "The aim of the game is to assemble more fish than anybody else. All the fish pieces start off in a pile in the middle, then people take turns throwing the dice. You have to throw a one to get a fish head, and then you can start gathering the matching fish parts according to what you throw; one piece per turn, but the game's played with two dice so you get two chances and two choices, and if you throw a double you can throw again. Most people try to assemble several fish at once. If you throw a one and a six together you can pick up a full fish; the game ends when all the fish are fully assembled."

"Sounds boring."

Izuna glances up from his work just long enough to grin at her. "Except that if you throw a one and there's no fish heads in the pile, you can steal one from somebody else's least complete fish and all their gathered parts go back in the pile. Or if you throw a one and a six and there's no complete fish to take from the pool, you pick a half-complete one from someone else and finish it. Finished fish can't be poached, but everything else is fair game."

"Ooh," he can _hear_ Tōka grinning, "I take it back. This sounds like a _very_ fine game. Can I play too?"

"It's best with four people," Izuna admits, "but more or less can play too. Just, very many more and you start needing more fish."

"I'll make my own set later," Tōka says, eyeing the wire held taut between his thumb and forefinger. "Does that work with pure chakra or does it have to be fire?"

Izuna shrugs. "I've only ever tried it with fire." Well, only ever seen Kita do it with fire; she'd made a tangram puzzle for Benten as a birthday present once, using a leftover square of expensive wood salvaged from some carpenter's scrap heap. It had taken her _seconds_ to make –plus a little longer sanding over the corners– and his cousin still plays with it almost as much as she does the little tea set. He's not sure any other elements would work out –barring wind chakra of course– but pure chakra might. Possibly.

"Is this an Uchiha thing? Using high-level elemental manipulation to make _game_ _pieces_?" the trap specialist demands. Whatever the idiot's name is, they know Izuna's holding a piece of the good wire and want it back. That they're fretting over something as trivial as him running _fire chakra_ through it and using it to slice wood makes it abundantly clear they have _no_ idea what kind of tolerances Uchiha wire is made to meet.

"What's the point of learning all that if you can't have fun with it?" Izuna asks, echoing the question Kita had put to him about four years ago when Madara started taking an active interest in the whole pottery business. It took him a while to recognise it, but she's got a point there.

The question nets him a thoughtful silence from his audience, making it much easier to cut out the fish. Well, until Hashirama comes back with the tea, at least.

* * *

A few hours later Izuna is able to determine that it is indeed a _lot_ easier to put up with the kudzu man when you are thrashing him at the fish game. Especially since Tsunama is _also_ thrashing his father at the fish game. No matter how good the Senju Head may be at cards, his luck with dice is _abysmal_.

"I really like this game," Tōka says cheerfully, stealing the head of her clan head's only remaining incomplete fish and sweeping the other parts into the much diminished central pile. "We need to play it again. With real stakes." Mito prevailed there: no gambling while her son is present.

Impossibly, this makes Hashirama perk up. "We could play again after dinner! Once Tsunama's gone to bed!"

… is Tōka _helping_ him fleece the tree-brained idiot? "I could play again," Izuna admits. It's been very fun having something _structured_ to keep the moron from manhandling him or asking intrusive questions, as well as actually getting to _win_ for once. Usually he and his brother battle for second place; even when they team up to try and steal all of Kita's flatfish, she _still_ wins the fish game.

"We'll play later for stakes then!" the Senju Head burbles delightedly, clapping his hands and rolling the dice again. He throws a five and a three, subsiding into a slump under a little chakra-induced raincloud. "Why can't I roll a one when I need one…"

Izuna picks up the dice, shakes them and rolls a six and a one. He turns to eye Tōka's fish collection.

"Uchiha, don't you _dare_."

His eyes slide to Tsunama –and to Mito smiling placidly behind her son– and then back to Tōka. The Senju shinobi huffs, but lets him steal one of her unfinished fish with no further threats. So it's not just him then; good to know that not _every_ Senju is blindly oblivious to how dangerous their Clan Head's wife is.

Even though Mito's husband clearly has not the faintest inkling. Then again, Izuna had already pegged Hashirama as a moron.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Celestial Fix](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24814768) by [KrakenMo (goldenKnife)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/goldenKnife/pseuds/KrakenMo)




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